Applications for a reception place for September 2017 open on 18th November 2016 and close on Sunday 15th January.
If you need a bit of help deciding on which school, or in what order to place your preferences, we may be able to help.
You can apply online, in about 20 minutes, for Nottingham City Schools or Nottinghamshire County Schools
WHICH SCHOOL?
School visits for prospective parents are underway throughout the autumn term. Contact those schools you’re interested in visiting, to find out when.
Our Education section includes listings for all Nottingham schools, state and private, with links to inspection reports and summary statistics, here.
If you click on ‘Get more information’ for the schools you’re interested in, a new tab will open for each one, showing useful statistics, for easy comparison.
This includes catchment information, showing where pupils currently attending the school live. This is not necessarily the same as the school’s official catchment area. To find this, click on the link to visit the school’s own website. Or, use Nottingham City Council’s interactive map of schools or Nottinghamshire County Council’s ‘Find My Nearest’ to identify your catchment and other nearby schools.
Remember though, that living within the school’s catchment area does not guarantee you a place, if the school is oversubscribed. This is why it is important to use all your options on the application form, in order of preference. In the event that you don’t get a place at your preferred school, you won’t be leaving things to chance. Though, you are not guaranteed a place at any of your preferred schools, just an offer of a school place.
You might want to look up your local or catchment secondary school(s), their admissions criteria and find out if they have feeder primary schools. Some secondary schools take children in catchment and from a feeder primary, before other children in catchment. This might influence your primary preferences, especially if your catchment secondary is oversubscribed.
TALK TO OTHER PARENTS
If you’d like to ask other local Mumsnetters about a particular school, or making a choice between schools, please do start a thread here in Local Talk.
IMPORTANT DATES
The closing date for reception applications is Friday 15th January 2016.
18th April is offers day; online applicants will receive emails, letters will be posted to paper applicants. (Our tip: If you applied online and can’t wait until morning, log in to your online account just after midnight to see your result. E-mails may not arrive until some hours later).
3rd May is the final date for parents to accept or decline places.
17th May is the deadline for lodging appeals.
Best of luck!