Step 8: You accept or decline the secondary school place

Accepting or declining

You must accept or decline the place that you have been offered by 17 March 2025.

  • If you applied online, you can log in to your application to reply to the offer.
  • If you applied by paper, you will need to email us your response or return the reply slip by post.

We strongly recommend you accept the place you are offered, even if this is not for the school you wanted, as it will ensure your child has a school place in September.

Accepting the offered place will not negatively affect your child's position on any waiting lists for other schools, nor the outcome of any appeal.

Declining the offer will not increase the chances of your child being offered a place at your preferred school.

If you decline the offer and you have no alternative place you will be responsible for finding your child another school. The place you decline may be offered to another child so may not be available later if you change your mind.

We encourage you to provide a prompt response even if you wish to decline the offer. This will ensure that the place can be offered promptly to the next child on the waiting list and will prevent the school from having a vacancy for any longer than is necessary. However, if you do not respond to an offer, it will be withdrawn.



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