Request for a child to be added to the secondary school waiting list

If you'd like your child to be added to a waiting list, you should submit a waiting list request form within 10 school days of your offer.

You have until 28 March 2024 to request to be added to a waiting list for the first round of school realloaction. 

You can submit a waiting list request after this date and we'll process it after the first round of reallocation.

We hold the waiting lists on behalf of all Medway secondary schools until 31 December 2024. All waiting lists held by us will close on this date.

Before you apply

You should read all of the information below before submitting a waiting list form. 

The school place your child was offered

You do not need to refuse the school place offered to your child to be placed on the waiting list for other Medway schools.

Refusing the place offered does not give you a higher priority on a waiting list.

We strongly advise that you do not refuse your offer. We advise you accept it, to ensure your child has a place secured even if you want to go on the waiting list for other Medway schools.

If you refuse the place offered, the place will be withdrawn from your child. If you change your mind about this, you'll need to ask for your child’s name to be added to the waiting list for the original school. There is no guarantee you will get the place back.

If you are offered a school place from a waiting list, we'll automatically withdraw any other school place offer you hold so it can be offered to another child.

Waiting lists and schools

Waiting lists must legally be held in order of the school’s oversubscription criteria, which can be found in the individual school’s admissions policy on their website. A child’s position on a waiting list is not based on when you requested for them to be added to it.

You can ask for your child to go on the waiting list for any of the Medway schools you named on your application that have not offered your child a place.

If you live in Medway, you can also request for your child to be placed on the waiting list of Medway schools that you did not name on your application.

Your child can be added to as many waiting lists for Medway schools as you wish. Our request form allows you to name the schools in your order of preference.

Your child can only be placed on the waiting list for a grammar school if they have been assessed as grammar under the Medway Test procedures. If your child has not been assessed as grammar via the Medway Test, you can still name a grammar school in the waiting list request form, but we cannot add your child to its waiting list. The grammar school will be added to your school application, giving you the right of appeal. 

Re-allocation and waiting list time

After 22 April 2024, we'll start to re-allocate (offer) any school places that have become available in Medway secondary schools since the national offer day.

Your child will remain on the waiting list until one of the following happens:

• you're offered a place at the school you're on a waiting list for
• you're offered a place at a higher named preference
• you ask to be removed from the waiting list
• the waiting lists closes on 31 December.

If you are on waiting lists at the end of December, we'll contact you to let you know it is closing and what you can do next. If you still wish to pursue a place after this time, you'll need to reapply as an in-year admission.

If your child is offered a place from a waiting list

If a place is offered to your child from the waiting list for one of the schools you have requested, we'll send you an offer in writing.

If the place offered is at the school you have listed as your highest preferred school, we'll automatically remove your child’s name from all other waiting lists.

If the place offered is not at the school you have listed as your highest preferred school, we'll remove your child’s name from any lower named school waiting list. They will remain on the higher named school waiting lists.