When to apply for school.

[RainbowFlowers]

My 3 year old son will start school in September 2021. When do I look around at schools and when do I have to apply? How do I apply?
Thanks

I can only advise for state schools in England. Applications are fine between 1 Sept of the previous and mid January of the year they’d start school; in your case September 2020 to mid Jan 2021. Applications are largekly (all??) done online - google your local authority and “primary school application”. Some schools will hace open days, some won’t. I just rang up and asks for a visit-every head teacher was happy to oblige. I’d say that now is a great to to start researching schools, their catchments/furthest distance offered,,the Ofsted reports, school ethos etc.

We've just applied for Dd, she goes September 2020. I think open days were September/October time. Online applications opened early November and closed mid January. We find out in April.

If you google you should find the admissions info for your area. Some of our schools had open days that you just turned up for, one had tours you had to book a space on.

Check your Council page in a few months time. The present info will still be helpful. We don't do any open days or home visits for new starters.

If in England, you need to look round this Sept/Oct when the schools run their open days. You then need to apply by mid Jan 2021.

You need to rank the schools in your true order of preference, but making sure you have at least one school somewhere you are pretty certain to be accepted to. Better a poor school on your doorstep than a poor school a 30min drive away.

Thanks everyone! That's brill

Iin England, you need to look round this Sept/Oct when the schools run their open days.

Don’t rely on this, not all schools have open days, especially the smaller village schools.