Changing school in-year

An in-year admission is when a child needs an immediate school place during the school year

You can only make an in-year application 6 weeks before you intend to move schools.

Exceptionally, parents seeking an in-year place starting in September 2021 can apply from 20 April 2021. Please see our timeline for more details.

How you make an application will depend on why you wish to move school:

• if you wish to move schools but are not moving house,
• if you are moving house 
• if you are moving into Buckinghamshire and wish you child to be considered for a  grammar school your child will need to take a transfer test

Find the schools near to you

Use our 'Find your child a school place' service to find information about the schools you are interested in including:

• catchment areas
• OFSTED report
• admission numbers
• admission rules

Who to apply to

You will either need to apply directly to the school or to the council. The in-year application checker will let you know who you need to apply to. 

Who to apply to

Please check this before making an application.

Check for school places

Many Buckinghamshire schools will already be full and may only have occasional vacancies when a child leaves the school. 

Check for school places

As vacancies can change on a daily basis any information about vacancies received direct from a school, is only valid at the time the information is provided.

Considerations when making an in year application

Will my child be offered a place at one of my preferred schools?

Many Buckinghamshire schools are already full and, therefore, it may not be possible to offer a place at your preferred schools.

Will my children all be offered the same school?

For families with more than one child, it can be extremely difficult to allocate a place for all the children in the same school. The result of an in-year application may be that siblings have to be split across two or more schools and that, in order to keep the children together, we may only be able to allocate a school which is not your preferred school and which may be some distance away from the home address.

If your child will require a place in Year 10 or Year 11

Think carefully before choosing to disrupt your child’s GCSE’s by requiring a school move part-way through this crucial part of their education. By the start of Year 10 many schools will have already set their GCSE options for their students so your child may not be able to study their preferred options, even if a place can be offered.

Fair Access Protocol

We have a Fair Access Protocol which ensures that vulnerable groups of children can quickly access school places.