Draft coordinated admission arrangements timetable 2026

There will be a standard form known as the common application form (CAF) which will be used for the purpose of admitting pupils into the reception class for primary school and the first year of secondary education in the determination year. In the main rounds for applications for primary and secondary places, an online facility will be set up to enable parents to apply for places online. A separate form known as the 'in-year application for a school place or a change of school place' will be available for any applications made for an "in year transfer" into any year group. There is no online facility yet although a form can be requested by contacting the School Admissions team via email school.admissions@stockton.gov.uk or phone 01642 526605.

The online application or common application form and 'in-year application for a school place or a change of school place' form must be used as a means of expressing one or more preferences for the purposes of section 86 of the School Standards and Framework Act 1998, by parents permanently resident in the local authority area who wish to express a preference for their child:

• to be admitted to a school within the local authority area (including voluntary aided schools, academies and free school)
• to be admitted to a school located in another local authority's area (including voluntary aided schools and academies)

The online application or common application form and 'in-year application for a school place' or a change of school place form will:

• invite parents to express up to three preferences with secondary only providing the option to apply for four preferences by completing the form including, where relevant, any schools outside the local authority's area, in rank order of preference
• invite parents to give their reasons for each preference

The common application form will:

• specify a closing date (for the determination year) and where it must be returned

The local authority will make appropriate arrangements to ensure:

• that the online application or common application form is available on request from the local authority and the 'in-year application for a school place' or a change of school place form will be available from the local authority
• that a written explanation of the scheme is available from the local authority and on their website

All preferences expressed on the online application or common application form are valid applications. The governing body of a voluntary aided school or academy can require parents who wish to nominate, or who have nominated their school on the common application form, to provide additional information on a supplementary form only where the additional information is required for the governing body to apply their oversubscription criteria to the application. Where a supplementary form is required, this will be requested after the voluntary aided schools or academies have received information from the local authority about who has applied for their schools. Information requested on the supplementary form should be returned by the parent to the individual school by the due date specified by the school.

Where a school receives a supplementary form, it will not be regarded as a valid application unless the parent has also completed either the Stockton-on-Tees online application or common application form or, if resident in another area which has a common application form, their home area's common application form, and the school is nominated on it. Where supplementary forms are received directly by voluntary aided schools or academy, the school must inform the local authority immediately so it can verify whether a common application form or neighbouring area's common application form has been received from the parent and, if not, contact the parent and ask them to complete one. In these circumstances, the school should also send the local authority a copy of the supplementary form if so requested. Under the requirements of the scheme, parents will not be under any obligation to complete an individual school's supplementary form where this is not strictly required for the governing body to apply their oversubscription criteria.

Very few voluntary aided schools or academies governing bodies have opted out of the co-ordinated admissions scheme for in year transfers, a list of these schools will be made available for parents by September 2026 on the Stockton website. Parents are still required to complete an application form from the local authority and schools need to inform the parents and the local authority of the outcome of the request.