Year 7 - secondary school applications

Application submission dates

Applications can be submitted from 12 September 2025. The deadline to submit an application is 31 October 2025.

National Offer Day for Year 7 is 2 March 2026.

If you miss the deadline, your application will be processed later in the year, and you are far less likely to secure a place at your preferred school. It is very important to apply by the deadline.

Home to School Travel

When applying for a school place, you must consider how your child will travel to and from school daily. If you choose a school further away than your nearest suitable school, your child may not be eligible for free home-to-school travel support. 

We encourage all families to think carefully about the practicalities of the journey, including travel time, costs, and arrangements, before making a final decision.

 Secondary school children are eligible for free home-to-school travel support where:

• they attend their nearest available school (not always their catchment school) and
• where that school is over three miles from their home address.

 If your child attends their nearest suitable school and the walking distance is less than 3 miles, we may still provide travel assistance if we have determined that there is no available walking route.

Please Note

If you choose a school further from your home than your nearest suitable school, your child will not be eligible for free home-to-school travel, even if there is no available walking route. 

Eligibility for travel assistance is based on the nature of the route to the nearest suitable school only, so it's essential to consider this when selecting a school place.

If you are considering free home-to-school travel as part of your school application, familiarising yourself with the schools nearest to your home address is very important. 

Eligibility for travel assistance is based on distance and the nature of the route to the nearest suitable school, not the school of your choice. 

We strongly recommend reading our Policy before you apply to ensure you understand the criteria and make informed decisions.

Catchment areas

Many, but not all, secondary schools have catchment areas.

Where your child has a catchment area school, they may have a higher priority for a place, but it isn't guaranteed. If there are more applications than places, we follow the school's published admission rules to decide priority.

There are other factors, such as whether a child has a brother or sister at the school or whether they have special educational needs. Religious or faith schools could use the religion of your child or family as a deciding factor.

You can find details of catchment areas for schools that use them on our list of schools page.

Nearest available school

When assessing for free transport, we do not measure the distance to the nearest school in the same way as the catchment school. So, the nearest school may not be your child's catchment school.

Think about how your child will get to school if you apply to a school that's further than your nearest available school.

To find out where your nearest school is, contact us. 

List of (existing) schools

Find details for every existing state-funded Oxfordshire school on our list of schools page. You can find each school's location, contact details, catchment area (where it has one), admissions rules and history of allocation data.

How places were allocated in previous years

The catchment area is one of the ways that places at schools are decided. There are other factors, such as whether a child has a brother or sister at the school or whether they have special educational needs. Religious or faith schools could use the religion of your child or family as a deciding factor.

Find the admission rules for all state-funded secondary schools, and how places were allocated on the individual school pages.

Independent school

If your child is going to attend an independent school, you must tell us the school name in writing as soon as possible. This will make your place available for another child.

Send us the details using this contact form.

Home educating

If you are going to educate your child at home let us know as soon as possible by contacting the Admissions Team. This will make your place available for another child. Contact the Elective Home Education Team for further details about home education.

Leaving Oxfordshire

If you are leaving the area and no longer require a school place in Oxfordshire, contact us as soon as possible. This will make your place available for another child.

Further advice

For further advice on the secondary school application process, please see the Moving On booklet (pdf format, 800KB)