What to do if your child does not get a place at their preferred secondary school such as how to go on a waiting list or how to appeal.
Add your child's name to the waiting list
If you are not offered a place at your most preferred school, your child's name may be added to one or more waiting lists for other schools and you will be notified if a place becomes available (for example, if other people decline their offer of a place at those schools).
Community schools
Your child's name will automatically be placed on the waiting lists for all the community schools you applied for.
Academies and foundation, free and voluntary aided schools
Your child's name will normally be placed automatically on the waiting list for any academies and foundation, trust and voluntary aided schools you applied for. However, some of these schools may require you to ask for your child's name to be added to their waiting list. Please check each school's waiting list policy for details.
Check which type of school you applied for
If you are unsure of the type of school you have applied for, please check our Directory of Surrey schools.
Community schools
If you were not offered a place at your first preference school, your child's name will automatically be placed on the waiting list for any community schools you named as higher preferences than the school you have been offered a place at.
Academies and foundation, free and voluntary aided schools
Your child's name will normally be placed on the waiting list for any academies and foundation, trust and voluntary aided schools you applied for. However, some of these schools may require you to ask for your child's name to be added to their waiting list. Please check each school's waiting list policy for details.
Check which type of school you applied for
If you are unsure of the type of school you have applied for, please check our Directory of Surrey schools.
If you would like your child to be considered for a school you did not originally apply for, write to the local authority where you live (even if the school is elsewhere) to add it as a preference.
Your child's position on a waiting list
From 27 March 2025 you can contact us to find out about your child's position on a waiting list for:
- our community schools: Ash Manor and Oakwood
- the following academies and foundation, trust and voluntary aided schools: The Ashcombe, Carrington, Chertsey High, Esher Church of England High, Glebelands, Jubilee High, Oxted, Reigate, Therfield, Thomas Knyvett, Three Rivers Academy and Warlingham.
For waiting lists at other academies and foundation, trust and voluntary aided schools you should contact the school directly. The contact details of each of these schools, along with what types of schools they are can be found on our Directory of Surrey Schools,
Waiting lists are ranked according to each school's admissions criteria, not the date the application was received or when the child's name was added to the list.
As some families decline their offer of a school place, vacancies are created and will be filled from each school's waiting list. Offer letters are issued by the child's home local authority and at this time any preferences lower down on the parent's list are withdrawn, unless offers have already been made for those. So, there may be occasions when a child receives more than one offer. If multiple offers are made, we work quickly to resolve them, to free up places for other children.
Your child's position on a waiting list can go down as well as up. This is because other children who have greater priority against the school's admission criteria may be added to the list (for example, a child who moves into the area).
If your child has moved since originally applying and your child is ranked on the waiting list according to distance, then their new address will usually be used to determine their place on the waiting list. However, you must make sure you tell the admission authority for the school that they have moved address. If you are unsure which address is being used, please check with the admission authority for the school.
If you are applying for a school place for more than one child for September 2025 and one child is allocated a place, to receive sibling priority for the second child (where this applies) please let the admission authority for that school know that a sibling has been given a place. In many schools, sibling priority can only be given to a child on an in-year waiting list once the sibling has started at the school.
A significant change may take place to waiting list positions at the start of the autumn term. This may be due to:
- the volume of applications received during the school holidays.
- removal of any children who have not reapplied to remain on waiting lists for the new academic year.
- changes to the way admission criteria are applied at the start of the autumn term.
Remaining on the waiting list
For schools we manage admissions for, we will maintain a waiting list until 22 July 2026 which is the last day of the summer term, after which it will be cancelled. If you would like your child's name to stay on the waiting list after this date, you must submit a Continuing Interest form between 1 July and 31 August 2026.
Academies and foundation, free, and voluntary aided schools which manage their own admissions may have different policies on cancelling their waiting lists. You should check their requirements for remaining on a waiting list with each school directly.
If you are unsure of the type of school you have applied for, please check our Directory of Surrey Schools,
School appeals
If your child is not offered a place at one of your preferred schools you can appeal against the decision.
If you wish to make an appeal, you will need find out who manages the appeal process and complete the relevant appeal form. To do so please see our web page: Find your school to appeal.
Community schools
The Surrey Schools Appeals Service manage the appeals process for all community schools.
You must make an appeal by the deadlines shown in the appeals timetable or the dates set out against each school in our Directory of Surrey schools.
Academies, and foundation, free and voluntary aided schools
The appeals process for academies, and foundation, free and voluntary aided schools are handled by the governing body of individual schools. Please contact the schools directly, using the contact details that are available via our Directory of Surrey schools.
However, in some instances these schools delegate the responsibility of organising appeals to the Surrey Schools Appeals Service.
For schools outside of Surrey, you should contact the school or the local authority where the school is situated to find out about how and when to submit an appeal.
