Guide
School admissions in England
A school is only worth shortlisting if your child can realistically get in. Check the admissions figures before you fall for the results.
Overview
Councils coordinate applications for Reception, junior and Year 7 places and publish what happened afterwards: how many places there were, how many families applied, and how far away the last child offered on distance lived.
MySchoolHub puts those allocation figures on every school page they exist for, with several years side by side, a link to the council’s source document, and a plain reading of your chances from your postcode.
What decides a place
Each school’s admission arrangements list its oversubscription rules in order, typically looked-after children, siblings, then distance, with faith, selective and banding rules at some schools. When there are more applicants than places, the last rule reached decides who gets in.
Grammar and independent routes add entrance tests, registration deadlines, fees and scholarships on top of the council process.
The figures on each school page
Places available, applications and offers for recent years, with applications per place as a measure of demand.
The last distance offered for each year, the admission rule it applied to, and the council document it came from. Where every applicant was offered a place, we say so rather than showing a distance.
A verdict from your postcode (Likely, Possible or Stretch) with the reasons behind it and what could change it.
Choosing where to live
If you are moving, Find an area ranks neighbourhoods by recent sale prices against your budget, the schools you could realistically get into from there, and your commute, with public transport times from TfL.
Now apply it to your own list
Add a postcode and we rank the schools you could reach, weighting progress as heavily as you like.
Common questions
Does MySchoolHub decide whether my child will get a place?
No. We read past allocation figures to show how realistic a school has been from your postcode. The council decides places using the admission arrangements for the year you apply.
Where do the admissions figures come from?
From the allocation figures each council publishes after offer day. Every figure links to the council document it was copied from.
Why is there no distance for some schools?
Either every applicant was offered a place, the school filled on other rules such as faith or banding, or the council has not published a distance. We leave those blank rather than estimate.