Guide · Parents · England
Applying for a primary school place: Reception and junior school
The 15 January deadline, 16 April offer day, starting school, deferring and part-time starts.
By the Pyxion Learn team · Checked 30 October 2026
The timetable
- Apply to your home council by 15 January of the school year before your child starts Reception. You can name several schools in order of preference.
- Offers are sent on 16 April (or the next working day).
- If your child is at a separate infant school, you apply again for a junior school place, on the same timetable, in Year 2.
Places are decided in the same way as secondary schools: each school’s oversubscription criteria (siblings, distance, catchment, faith) applied in order, with an equal preference system.
When your child starts
Children can start Reception full-time in the September after they turn four. They don’t have to start school until compulsory school age: the start of the term after their fifth birthday.
If your child is offered a Reception place, you can:
- defer the start until later in the Reception year (but not beyond the term after their fifth birthday); or
- ask for them to attend part-time until they reach compulsory school age.
The place is held for them. If your child is summer-born and you want them to start Reception a year later, you need to ask the admission authority; the rules for this are separate.
Infant class sizes
Infant classes (Reception to Year 2) are limited by law to 30 pupils per teacher. Appeals for infant classes are therefore much harder to win than other appeals.