Before you apply for a school place

What you need to do

You should:

• make sure you have a confirmed Cumberland address to apply - you cannot us a business address, childminder’s address, or any address other than your child’s home address
• check with the schools you are intending to state as a preference to see whether any supporting evidence should be sent with your application, or a supplementary form
• read the admission policies for the schools you're interested in
• read our the parent booklets

Read the admission policies

For the schools you're interested in, you should read their school admission policy to see what level of priority you would have - you can find school policies in our directory of schools.

You should also read our general admission policies for each school type to understand the process

Read our parent booklets

Find a list of brochures and documents for each school year

Choosing your preferences

We ask you to name three different preferences of school that you would be happy for your child to attend because we cannot guarantee that you will get your first preference.

If you only put one preference on your application form and we are unable to offer a place at that school, then your child will be offered a place at the nearest school with spaces available (this could be a school that is a number of miles from your home address or a faith based school). We always advise parents to submit three preferences as this may reduce the chances of being offered a place at a school chosen by the council rather than yourself.

On the application form you should give your first, second and third preferences. If you complete the form in such a way that the ranking of two or more schools is not clear, we will rank them for you.

Admissions are based on the "Equal Preference" scheme whereby all preferences for a school (whether first, second or third) are ranked in order of the school admissions oversubscription criteria irrespective of the preference order.

For example, if you submit a first preference application for "School A" and you live three miles from the school, and someone else lists "School A" as a second preference application but live just two miles from the school, then in line with the admissions oversubscription criteria that child's application would be ranked higher than your child's application.

Apply for a school place

Apply for a:

• reception place
• transfer to junior school
• secondary school place