Applying for a primary school place

Apply for a primary school place

The deadline for applications to be submitted in time for national offer day is 15 January 2025.

To apply for a primary school place you will need to:

  • apply through Medway Council if you live in Medway
  • apply through your own local authority if you live outside of Medway
  • use the child’s main address
  • complete an application for each child if you’re applying for more than one such as twins. Twins will not count as a sibling link for a place.

When applying you can:

  • name both Medway and non-Medway schools on your application
  • apply for up to 6 different schools in order of preference (not including private, independent or special schools)
  • choose to apply for less than 6 schools but naming just one school does not improve your chances of being offered a place at that school

We advise that you use all 6 preferences available to give you a greater chance of being offered one of your preferred schools.

When applying remember we still cannot guarantee or give a child priority for a place:

  • if you name a school multiple times, it will only be considered as one of your preferences
  • if your child goes to a nursery or pre-school attached to a school
  • if you have added your child’s name to a school’s expression of interest list
  • based on your personal childcare arrangements.

How to apply

You can apply for a school place using the Parent Portal.

Apply for a school place

When applying you will need to:

Applications for children with an EHC plan or statement of special educational needs

If your child has an education, health and care (EHC) plan, you do not apply through this mainstream process.

Apply for a school place for a child with an EHC plan

Applying if you do not have access to a computer at home

You can use computers at our community hubs or libraries to complete your online application.

If you cannot apply online, you can get a paper application from Gun Wharf, Dock Road, Chatham, ME4 4TR. You will not get receipt of paper applications.

Deferring or delaying your child's start date

Children reach compulsory school age when they turn 5 and must be in school the term after their fifth birthday. If your child is born between 1 April and 31 August, you can request to defer or delay your child's start date.

Applying for a junior school

When applying for a junior school, remember that you must apply:

  • for a child to go to year 3 in a junior school even if they’re transferring from a Medway infant school to a junior school
  • the same way if your child is in year 2 at a primary school and you'd like them to be considered for a place in year 3 at a junior school
  • as an in-year admission if your child is in an infant school and you want them to go to a primary school.

Apply online

When you apply online you will:

  • get email confirmation when you submit your application
  • be able to check or change your application until the closing date and resubmit after changes are made
  • be emailed your school offer on offer day.

If you have not received an email confirming that your application has been submitted, your application probably hasn’t gone through. Before the deadline, check your application status on the Parent Portal and make sure it says it’s been submitted or contact School Admissions on admissions@medway.gov.uk to find out.

You can also complete our optional school readiness questionnaire.

Parental responsibility and disputes

Only a person with parental responsibility for a child can apply for their school places.

If we receive more than one application for a child and they are different, the parents must either agree between them or seek a court order to decide:

  • the schools to be named on the application
  • the order of preference for those schools
  • the address to be used for the application
  • who is to be named the main applications (we can send copies of correspondence to the other parent).

If there is a dispute and parents cannot agree, we will contact both parents to confirm that neither application will be processed until agreement is reached.

Medway Council will not mediate in cases of parental disputes.

Late applications

Make sure you apply before the closing date of 15 January 2025.

If you miss the closing date you can still apply up to 5pm on Friday 24 January 2025 with an email explaining why you missed the closing date.

We'll decide if late applications received by 24 January 2025 can be accepted. Any applications not accepted between 15 and 24 January or received after 24 January 2025 will be processed from Monday 9 June 2025.