Secondary school admissions for entry in September 2013

These pages are designed to help you if your child is due to start secondary school for the first time in September 2013.

If your child is already at secondary school and you wish to transfer to another secondary school please read the in-year admission information.

The secondary school admission pages explain how we deal with applications and allow you fill in an online application form.

The Parent's Guide contains everything that you need to know about applying for a school place. The Guide is also available in hard copy for those who are unable to access the Internet. If you need a hard copy, please contact the School Admissions Team.

Help and advice is available from the Council's School Admissions Team on 01752 307469. Independent advice is available from the ACE (Advisory Centre for Education) helpline on 0808 800 5793 and also from the Choice Adviser located at the Parent Partnership Service on 01752 258933 or email parent.partnership@plymouth.gov.uk.

The Government has published a School Admissions Code of Practice on school admissions which explains the good practice guidelines that we follow.

It is in your best interest to ensure that we receive your application on time. Whilst we are happy to accept late applications, we may not be able to deal with them alongside, or in exactly the same way as those submitted on time, and many of the schools may have already been filled by those applicants who applied on time.

What to do now

• Find out more about secondary education in Plymouth. The Plymouth schools directory gives details about our schools.
• Read our Parent's Guide page to read the guidance about secondary school admissions.
• Complete and submit an application form; you can fill in an online application form up to 31 October 2012. After that date, you will need to complete a paper application form, which you can download from the application forms page. You may apply for up to three schools and rank them in priority order.

If you applied online

• You will receive an email to confirm registration to the online system.
• If you need to amend your personal details or view your application, you can do so by signing back in to the online application form and clicking the view/edit button up until the closing date for applications. After the closing date the system will not accept new applications or changes to applications previously submitted.
• You will receive an email confirming receipt of your online application form.
• You will receive an email confirming the school place allocation on 1 March 2013 during the morning. This will be followed by confirmation in writing.
• You can sign into the online application form from 1 March 2013 and by clicking the view/edit button, you can view the school place allocated under the 'status' field.
• You can make your response to the allocation online (closing date for responses is 15 March 2013).

If you applied by paper application

• And you need to amend your personal details of your application, you must do so in writing. You can amend your application up until the closing date for applications.
• If you apply for a school place by the published closing date, your notification letter, confirming the school allocated to your child will be posted to you on 1 March 2013. This means that you will not receive the letter until after 1 March 2013.
• You can make your response to the allocation using the form enclosed with your notification letter (closing date for response is 15 March 2013).