School admission arrangements consultation 2026/2027
School admission arrangements set out how schools will admit pupils.
The arrangements include:
- the published admission number (the maximum number of pupils a school can admit to a year group).
- the oversubscription criteria
- information on the school waiting lists
Admission arrangements must be determined 18 months before the September of the academic year for which they’re relevant.
All schools will determine their arrangements each year. They will only formally consult every seven years, unless changes are proposed.
Consultation on admission arrangements 2026 to 2027 for community and voluntary controlled schools
The local authority is consulting on:
- its proposed admission arrangements for community and voluntary controlled schools for which Wakefield Council is the admissions authority
- the coordinated arrangements for schools in Wakefield
The local authority is not proposing any changes to the School Admissions Policy.
Any comments should be emailed to KKpolicy@wakefield.gov.uk or posted to:
The School Admissions Team,
Wakefield Council,
Wakefield One,
PO Box 700,
Burton Street,
Wakefield,
WF1 2EB.
The closing date for the receipt of any comments is 31 January 2025.
Coordinated scheme for admission to school 2026/27
The Local Authority is consulting on the proposed changes to its Primary and Secondary Co-ordination Scheme.
In the past the local authority was able to identify all late applications received between particular dates which allowed us to manually process late applications and allocate a school place before the National Offer Day. From September 2026 the local authority will be processing all late applications received after the second closing date (20 November 2025/14 February 2026) altogether as a batch after the National Offer Day. All remaining late applications will then be processed individually based in strict date order.
Applications received between 3 March 2026 and 31 August 2026 inclusive will be treated as casual admissions and will be dealt with in date order of receipt.
Read the co-ordinated schemes for admission to school on our schools admissions page.
Any comments should be emailed to KKpolicy@wakefield.gov.uk or posted to:
The School Admissions Team
Wakefield Council
Wakefield One
PO Box 700
Burton Street
Wakefield
WF1 2EB
The closing date for the receipt of any comments is 31 January 2025.
Relevant area for consultation on admission arrangements
The Education (Relevant Areas for Consultation on Admission Arrangements) Regulations 1999 requires all local authorities to review the relevant area which identifies all schools that must be consulted on changes to admission arrangements. This must be done every two years.
We've determined the relevant area for admission to schools as the geographical area covered by the Wakefield Council. This will be reviewed for admissions in September 2026.
Determined admission arrangements for Wakefield schools
Wakefield Council is the admission authority for all community and voluntary controlled schools in the district. We set the over-subscription criteria and make decisions about which pupils are admitted.
Governing bodies are the admission authorities for voluntary aided schools. Academy trusts/Governing Body are the admission authorities for academies. Their individual admission arrangements are shown on their websites. They can be obtained by contacting the school/academy.