Secondary school admissions

Your child will move on to secondary school after finishing Year 6 in primary school. On this page you can find how to apply for a Year 7 secondary school place.

Starting Year 7 at secondary school - September 2019

If your child lives in Newham you will need to apply through us.

If your child lives outside Newham, but you want him or her to go to school in Newham, you will need to apply to the local authority in the borough you live in.

Remember, you must apply for a place, even if:

  • you want your child to go to the local school
  • your child has an older brother or sister at the school you prefer
  • the school you prefer has a priority or catchment area and your child lives within it.

What to do before you apply

Before you apply:

  • read our current Moving from primary to secondary school guide (PDF)
  • visit our Secondary School Fact Finder
  • read the admission rules for each school you wish to apply to
  • read any extra rules published by the school if it is oversubscribed (has more applicants than places)
  • decide which schools you want to apply to - you can name six
  • read the eAdmissions information leaflet on applying (PDF)
Apply for a Year 7 secondary school place

Apply online

You can apply for a secondary place for September 2019 through the eAdmissions website

You will need to register and create a password before you start your application.

The national closing date for applications is 31 October 2018. If we receive your application after the closing date we treat it as late.
You can send documents to support your application. But do not send supplementary information forms (SIFs) with your application. You must send SIFs directly to the schools you choose.
If you need a paper application form, email pupil.services@newham.gov.uk

Email Confirmation

After you send your application you will receive a reference number, which will look a bit like this: 316-2019-09-E-001234. If you do not get a reference number, it means you have not sent the eform. You can easily log in to the website, check your application and send it again.

If you change your mind

You can change your school choices at any time right up until one minute to midnight on 31 October. Simply log into the eAdmissions website.

Late applications

If we receive your application after the closing date (31 October 2018) we will not consider it until all those who applied on time have been given their places.
So, if you apply late your chances of getting a place at the school you want are much less than if you apply on time.

Supplementary information forms

Some schools ask for a SIF to go with your application. You can get these forms directly from the school.

If you apply to an academy or school which also asks for SIF, remember to send one and make sure it gets to the school by the deadline. The school sets the deadline (although we will also publish it here too). If you don’t send the SIF, the school will not be able to prioritise your child. So he or she will go into the lowest priority group.

Schools asking for SIFs are normally faith schools. The faith schools in Newham are: St. Angela's Ursuline Convent School (Roman Catholic); and St. Bonaventure's Catholic Comprehensive School (Roman Catholic).

Note that a SIF is not an application form. It is an extra form to go with your paper form.

What happens after you send an application

Each school has an admissions committee. We send information from your application to the committee for each school you apply to.
The committees will look at how your application and SIF match their admission rules. They will list the applications in order of priority and send this information to us.

At this stage the committee will not know where in order of preference you placed the school when you applied.

We will decide what offer we can make your child. If more than one school can offer your child a place, the offer you get will be for the school you put highest on the list on your application.

When will I know my child has a place?

We will send out offers to our residents, for applications received by the deadline, on national secondary offer day, which is 1 March 2019.

An outcome letter will be posted on 1 March 2019. If you applied online you can log in to your eAdmissions account in the evening of the 1 March 2019 to find out the outcome.

Admission criteria for secondary schools

  • Chobham Academy (PDF)
  • East London Science School(PDF)
  • Stratford School Academy (PDF)
  • London Borough of Newham determined arrangements for 2019 (PDF) - includes Newham maintained schools and any academies or free schools that have adopted the admission arrangements (full list of schools is in appendix 3).​
  • Newham maintained voluntary aided faith schools (PDF) which include St. Angela’s Ursuline Convent School and St. Bonaventure’s Catholic Comprehensive School

All 33 London boroughs work together to increase the number of pupils who receive an offer from one of their preferred schools. The Pan-London Co-ordinated Admission System document 2019/20 (PDF) outlines the rules and guidelines to which these offers are made.

Determined Admission Arrangements for entry from September 2019

Oversubscription criteria – how we offer school places

New admission arrangements for all Newham maintained community and voluntary controlled schools (except faith schools) are adopted by all academies except faith schools, Chobham Academy, East London Science School, Stratford School Academy.

Following the formal consultation between 5 December 2017 and 31 January 2018 and subsequent Council agreement our admission arrangements for entry into school from September 2019 have been formally determined.

The main changes for 2019 are:

  • A single document for infant, junior, primary and secondary schools.
  • Removal of catchment areas and the associated catchment area priority for infant, junior and primary schools. Introduced to remove a barrier to admission at the most geographically local schools, due to the local set historic boundaries of a catchment areas.
  • Inclusion of ‘School staff children’ as an over subscription priority group. This is to assist local schools in recruiting and retaining staff by prioritising admission of staff children to their schools and will help ensure we have no barriers to recruitment especially where there is a demonstrable skills shortage, such as maths and science.
  • Inclusion of ‘Service children’ as an over subscription priority group. To complement the council’s Cabinet approved housing allocations policy we are prioritising Service children whose parent/carers have or are serving the country.
Fair access

All local authorities and councils must operate a 'fair access protocol' in their areas to make sure children considered hard to place and/or vulnerable are secured a school place, and that no school is asked to admit a disproportionate of children considered as hard to place.

School admisison appeals

You can appeal if any school you applied to refuses your application. Go to our School admission appeals page for more information.

Documents needed for entry to school

Before your child can start school, there are documents you must take to the head teacher.

You can find a list of the documents on our Documents needed for entry to school page.

Last updated: 14/09/2023

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