Apply for a school place
Apply for a school place in Year R, Year 3, for a Junior School or Year 7
If you pay your council tax to Southampton City Council then you must apply for schools through us, even those not in Southampton. If you are unsure, you can check whether we are your local authority for school admissions.
Applications for school places for September 2025 open on Monday 2 September 2024
- Applications for Year R (infant/primary) close on 15 January 2025 at 23:59
- Applications for Year 3 (junior) close on 15 January 2025 at 23:59
- Applications for Year 7 (secondary) closed on 31 October 2024 at 23:59
To apply for a school place after applications close you can submit a late application.
Check before you apply
- If you are looking to change schools part-way through the academic year, you will need to complete an in-year transfer application
- If your child has an Education, Health and Care Plan, you do not need to complete an application form. A school place will be identified through a separate process. Please contact the special educational needs and disabilities team
- Some applications require supporting information
- If you only want to apply to an independent or private school, please contact the school admissions team
Otherwise you can apply through the portal below.
Before you fill in this form
You won't be able to save this form to complete later, so please allow yourself 10-15 minutes to fill in the form. You will need to provide:
Proof of address
To apply for a September 2025 place, you will need to
- Find and decide the order of your preferred schools. We strongly advise looking at the admissions policies for each school, so that you know how applications are considered and how the distance from home to school will be measured
- Register and apply through the Citizen Portal. This is a separate login to any other account you may have registered with us.
Before you fill in this form
You won't be able to save this form to complete later, so please allow yourself up to five minutes to fill in the form.
Citizen Portal guidance is available to use when applying.
Additional supporting information is required if you are:
- Applying to a faith school under the faith criteria
- Applying to a particular school for a significant medical or psychological reason
- Active members of the Church of England and require a Church of England controlled school
Remember: Places are withdrawn every year because parents give a false address on their application. This includes cases where parents buy or rent a property solely to use the address in the application, without any intention of taking up permanent residence there.
We will investigate all allegations of false addresses and may monitor residency details if use of a temporary address causes concern.
If you have already applied, you may wish to read about the school place offer.
