In-year coordinated admission scheme for Leeds schools for academic year 2025 to 2026

Introduction

An in-year application is an application that is:

• submitted on or after 1 September for a place in
  • reception
  • year 7
  • year 3 at junior schools
• for a place in year 1 to year 6 at a primary school at any time
• for a place in year 8 to year 11 at secondary school at any time

This scheme does not apply to:

• Normal round applications. This means applications made in advance for places in reception, year 7 or year 3 at junior school, starting in September. A separate process and coordination scheme
• Applications for places in a school nursery or school sixth form - families need to contact the school to apply for such places.
• Places at any special school (SILC) where children need an EHC Plan to name the school.
• In-year applications for
  • schools located outside Leeds - families must contact the Local Authority the school is based in to find out how to apply.
  • Leeds schools who are their own Admission Authority (This is the Governing Body for foundation and voluntary aided schools. It is the Academy Trust for academies and free schools.) and have opted-out of in-year coordination for the 2025/26 school year – you can see whether a school is included in the scheme at the end of this document.

Fair Access Protocol - This coordination scheme does not change the Leeds Fair Access Protocol which applies to all Leeds schools and is separate. All schools are bound by the Fair Access Protocol under paragraph 3.15 of the School Admissions Code 2021.

In-year applications for Leeds schools

A parent can apply for a place for their child at any school, at any time (Paragraph 2.23 of the School Admissions Code 2021).

When to apply: We recommend parents make in-year applications no more than one half term before the child would start at the school, as in-year places are not held open for long periods of time. 

How to apply

The Local Authority (LA) provides a central online parent application portal for families to use to request places for all schools. Parents can express up to 5 school preferences on their in-year application. 

Families may need to provide additional verification evidence if they seek the child to be admitted under specific admission criteria, for example, if the child is looked after, meets faith admission criteria or there has been a recent change of address (If a parent provides information which is prohibited under the Admission Code, this will not be saved to the application or shared with schools).

Any Supplementary Information Form (SIF) to evidence faith must be sent directly to the school.

All other additional evidence is submitted by email to education.transfers@leeds.gov.uk Additional evidence should be submitted at the same time as the online portal application is made.

Offers over numbers / outside coordination

Subject to meeting infant class size legislation, any school can, at any time, offer places over their in-year prejudice limit. This may be appropriate to do for a previously looked after child or to keep a sibling group together. The places must be offered to the applicant(s) who meet the highest priority of the admission policy.

The admission team will make these offers for the school as part of the weekly process, provided the school notifies the LA by the end of Wednesday.

Schools with spaces

Schools with spaces in the required year group are likely to be able to offer an immediate start.

All LAs are required to provide information to families about the places available in all schools within our area. This is available on our website at Apply to move schools. We list all Leeds schools, except UTC Leeds, and whether there are spaces in any year groups. These lists are updated weekly during term time. 

Vacancies are based on the data each school inputs into SAM. (Paragraph 2.27 of the School Admissions Code requires school to provide details of the number of places available at the school within 2 school days of the LA requesting this.)

Direct applications where school has 2+ spaces

If the child seeks an immediate start, and there are no other applications on the waiting list, school can offer a place and arrange an immediate start.

The school must

1. Check SAM to ensure no new applications have been added to the year group waiting list.
2. Increase the attendance count in SAM by 1
3. Email transfers@leeds.gov.uk with:
   • email subject “direct offer”
   • include the child’s name, address, DOB and parental contact details
   • state the agreed start date

If a school does not check SAM, or if a school was to offer a place not following the admission policy, this causes prejudice as another child(ren) misses out on place(s) they qualified for.  A school will need to offer over numbers to any child who missed out on their place to correct the prejudice and ensure the Code is compiled with.

In-year admission information on school websites

By 31 August each year, all Leeds schools must include on their own website how parents can apply for a school place in-year.

We provide a template for admission websites which can be accessed on Leeds for Learning. It can be used from 1 August each year.

• Opt-in schools: we recommend using the LA’s template as this ensures schools link to our website where families can find details of this scheme.
• Opt-out schools: Schools who opt out can still receive applications through the Leeds online portal. The school website should include any supplementary information forms and must set out when parents will be notified of the outcome of their application and details about the right to appeal.

Decision making

The law does not give parents a right to ‘choose’ which school their child will attend. 

Schools must comply with any preference expressed by a parent or carer about which school they would prefer their child to be educated in, subject to certain exceptions. The law recognises that it might not be possible to offer the school place that is requested for a number of reasons including:

• admitting the child would prejudice the provision of efficient education or the efficient use of resources or because the school’s statutory infant class size limit of 30 has been reached. This means the year group is full and the school cannot admit any more pupils
• the child has been permanently excluded from two or more schools and the most recent of the exclusions took place within the last two years

Leeds schools cannot refuse to admit a child solely because:

• they have applied later than other applicants
• they are not of the faith of the school in the case of a school designated with a religious character
• they have followed a different curriculum at their previous school
• information has not been received from their previous school

The admission process is objective, and if a school has a place in the requested year group, a place should be offered to the applicant child. If there are more applications than places, the school must allocate places based on the oversubscription criteria in their determined 2025/26 admission policy only (Paragraph 2.28 of the School Admissions Code).

If the school has no places free, the application will be refused, and the decision letter must set out the reason for refusal and information about the right to appeal (Paragraph 2.30 of the School Admissions Code).

Decisions for Leeds schools included in this scheme

Applications are processed during term time. Applications (along with any required verification documents) must be submitted by midnight on a Sunday to be considered in any allocation taking place in the following week.

Leeds City Council will send a single decision letter that gives the following information:

• whether a place can be offered or not, at all preferenced schools. If a place can be offered at more than one preference on the application list, a place will be offered at the school highest on the list
• if no place can be offered at any of the preferences, no alternative school offer will be made - the family will be able to amend their application to add new preferences

If any preference is refused, the letter will include:

• whether the child has been added to the waiting list
• the reasons why the child is not being offered a place at any preference school(s). This is usually because there are no spaces, and the school cannot admit extra pupils without suffering prejudice
• information about the family’s statutory right of appeal against any decisions to refuse places at preference schools

Start date

Our decision letter does not include a start date. The family need to accept the offer directly with the school and the start date will be agreed between the school and family. The school is responsible for following this up.

If the family fail to accept the place, it may be withdrawn and offered to another child.

If the child is without a current school place or cannot access their current school place due to a significant house move, arrangements will be made for the child to start at the school as soon as possible. If there has been no house move and the child can still attend the previous school, the start date may be delayed to the beginning of the next half-term if appropriate.

Decision for Leeds schools who opt out of this scheme

The school’s Admission Authority (This is the Governing Body for foundation and voluntary aided schools. It is the Academy Trust for academies and free schools.) are responsible for sending their own decision letter to the family. It is a requirement of the Admission Code that they should aim to notify the parents of the outcome of their application in writing within 10 school days, and families must be notified in writing within 15 school days.

The school must also tell the LA of the application and decision within 2 school days (Paragraph 2.30 of the School Admissions Code).

Verification evidence including supplementary information forms (SIF)

All preferences expressed on an in-year application form are valid school applications. 

As set out in the Admissions Code, there is some information and documentation that cannot be considered when making school admission decisions. The types of information that can be asked for are set out below:

Information that must be provided

• Parent’s name and address.
• Child’s name, address, and date of birth.
• School preferences.

Information that can be requested but is not mandatory  

• Evidence that would allow a child to be placed higher on the oversubscription criteria: for example, documents that show a child meets the previously looked after child definition, or proof of address documentation.
• A SIF if applying under faith oversubscription criteria.
• Evidence of meeting the ‘challenging behaviour’ definition in 3.10 of the Code.

Information that must not be requested

• Any personal details about parents and families, such as maiden names, criminal convictions, marital, or financial status (including marriage certificates).
• The first language of parents or the child.
• Details about parents’ or a child’s disabilities, special educational needs, or medical conditions.
• Requiring parents to agree to support the ethos of the school in a practical way.
• Requiring both parents to sign the form, or for the child to complete the form.
• Once a place has been offered, schools may ask for proof of birth date but must not ask for a ‘long’ birth certificate or other documents which would include information about the child’s parents.

Where a school’s admission policy requires additional information to be able to rank the application, such as a SIF to evidence faith criteria, should a school chase any applicants for a SIF, they should contact all applicants and not just selected applicants. 

Several Leeds secondary schools offer an aptitude priority which may be a priority for in-year applications. If families seek to apply for a place under this priority, they will need to follow the school’s own process for this.

An in-year application must be ranked based on the information held at the time. It should only be updated to meet higher criteria once any required extra information is received to verify it as correct.

Address documents and checks 

Definition of home address: Where a child lives can be an important factor in what admission policy criteria the application meets. We undertake address checks on behalf of schools to prevent fraudulent applications. 

Living in a school's catchment or priority area does not guarantee a child a place at that school, it simply places a child higher up the list of applicants.

We can only use one address for a school place application. Applications must be made using the child’s permanent address. This is the home address of a parent or carer who holds parental responsibility for the child. A child’s permanent address cannot be the address of a relative, friend or childminder. 

Shared care and parental disputes: If there is a shared care arrangement for a child, the family must apply using the address of the parent where the child lives at most of the time. If there is 50/50 shared care, the parents can agree which of their two addresses to use for the application, however, it is not possible to change the address to be that of the other parent later in the application process.

All persons holding parental responsibility should agree the school application before it is submitted. We cannot stop a sole parental responsibility holder from making an in-year application or accepting a place. Only a family court can limit parental rights to apply for a school place.

House moves: We cannot use future addresses that families do not yet have the legal right to live in, for example, where an offer has been accepted on a house purchase, where contracts have been exchanged or where a tenancy has been secured before a family arrives in the city.

We need to see documentary evidence of an address change which includes a minimum of two documents, one from each list below.

To show the family has left the previous property we need one of the following:

• a completion of sale document
• a landlord notice to leave
• an exit utility bill (gas, electricity, water, landline phone)

To show the family has moved into new property we need one of the following:

• tenancy agreement for a rented property
• house purchase completion (not exchange)

Families must tell us about any changes that take place before a child starts at the school as it could affect the school place offer for the child. Failure to tell us may mean the application is fraudulent or intentionally misleading or the place has been offered based on an error.

False addresses: It is fraudulent to use a false address on a school place application. Examples of a false address include: 

• pretending to live with a relative or friend, whilst retaining another address
• renting a property close to a popular school but continuing to live somewhere else
• renting a property close to a popular school at the time of applying, but moving back home after an offer has been made

We may ask families to provide proof of address at any time or to provide additional documents to those listed above. As part of our application checks, we may ask for proof:

• a child lives permanently at the address they applied from
• any previous home address is permanently unavailable for that child to live in

If an application is found to be fraudulent or misleading, we will withdraw the offer of a place, and this can happen even if a child has started at a school.

School portal (SAM)

We provide a portal for schools to access in-year admission applications. This is called SAM and is part of the synergy access admission system.

SAM measures home to school distance based on the LLPG coordinates on each school and residential property. Straight line distance is measured between the two sets of coordinates using GIS mapping. SAM is populated with any catchment or “nearest priority school” area set out in a school’s admissions policy and matches addresses against those areas.

SAM supports schools to identify which priority of their admissions arrangements the application meets when ranking their applications. 

Allocation process

Allocations are made in term time and usually follow a weekly process. (In exceptional circumstances, such as significant period when synergy/SAM is unavailable or official holidays falling outside school holidays, an in-year allocation will not be completed if the weekly actions cannot be completed.)

Day of the week and actions

Monday

Applications are downloaded into SAM – both admission and school staff can view them as soon as downloaded.    

Tuesday

Admission team carry out verification processes, including:

• address checks
• child looked after claims checks
• Education Health and Care Plan checks
• make decisions on exceptional social need requests for Leeds community and voluntary controlled schools
• handling admissions requests for children to be admitted out of age in-year following published guidance from the DfE issued to local authorities and school admission authorities

As part of this process, families may be contacted and asked to provide further verification information to support their application.

Applications will be considered against information held at the time and admission policy criteria can only be updated once acceptable verification evidence has been received.

Wednesday

Schools must rank their applications against their policy by the end of Wednesday. This includes 

• adding criteria to all applications and creating a ranked list within SAM for all schools who use criteria

OR

• cross checking the claims auto added by SAM are correct for all schools who use rules. (For example, sibling claims) 

Admission Authorities always retain the duty for cross checking that all claims have been correctly ranked against their own admission policy.

Schools must also update SAM with

• on roll dates for any pupil who has started attending the school.
• changes to SAM attendance count – the number of pupils on-roll in each admission round.

NB: Please email Education Transfers if a parent refuses an offer, outlining the details of the refusal.

Thursday

Weekly allocation takes place by admission team.

At the end of the day, schools where new offers have been made will be sent an email notification. In year offers show in SAM in the View Final Offer area.

Friday (after 1pm)

Decision letters, including offers, sent to families.

Waiting lists

A waiting list for all schools who opt-in to the scheme will be maintained until July 2026.

Waiting lists must be held in line with the published oversubscription criteria and re-ranked whenever a child is added to the list. Places cannot be offered on a first come first served basis.

Looked after children, previously looked after children and those allocated a place at the school in accordance with a Fair Access Protocol must take precedence over those on a waiting list. (Paragraph 2.15 of the School Admissions Code.)

Applications for 2026/27 school year

A new in-year application is always needed if the family seeks a school place in the next school year. 

New applications also have a new right of appeal should the application be refused.

Schools can contact families on their waiting list in July to remind them to apply for a place if they wish to do so. The Admissions team will not remind parents of the need to re-apply.