Starting primary or junior/middle school in September 2023

You can log on to the Citizen Portal here to see your child's school place offer

If you have submitted an application for a school place for September 2023

For parents who submitted their application to the council by 15 January 2023, emails or letters will be sent on 17 April 2023 with notification of the school place offered.  Parents who applied on the Citizen Portal can also log on to see their school place offer. You can view the allocation profile here for starting school for the first time or the allocation profile here for moving up to junior school.  This gives information about how places were allocated and schools that may have vacancies for September 2023. 

Please note, if your child has been allocated a place at Brooklands Farm Primary School or Oxley Park Academy, you will receive a separate letter informing you which campus has been allocated.  Please do not contact the council to find out about campus allocations.

IMPORTANT:  Parents do not need to contact the council or take any action if they are satisfied with the school place offered.  The school you have been allocated is now responsible for sending joining instructions to parents. For parents whose applications are late, between 16 January 2023 and 25 April 2023, school place offers will be sent on 26 May 2023 by letter.

Brooklands Farm Primary School

Brooklands Farm Primary School is one school with two campuses: Fen Street and Countess Way. The school serves the settlements of Brooklands and Broughton Gate.

The campus allocation policy outlines how children are allocated to each campus and explains the process for parents to request a transfer to the alternative campus.

If for any reason, you are unhappy with the campus allocated and would like to request a different campus, a transfer request can be made.  You will need to complete a campus transfer request form and return it by email to primaryadmissions@milton-keynes.gov.uk.  The deadline for submitting the transfer request form to the council is Friday 9 June 2023.

Your request will be reviewed by the Campus Transfer Review Panel on 15 June 2023. The council will write to parents with the result of the transfer request within five working days of the date of the Panel meeting.  The decision of the Panel is final and there is no further right of appeal.

If you have not yet submitted an application

Please complete a late application form for starting school or a late application for moving up to junior school as the Citizen Portal is not available for making late applications. When choosing your four school preferences we advise you to look on the Allocation Profile to see which schools are oversubscribed.   

If you no longer need the school place you have been offered

If you have made other arrangements for your child’s schooling, or have a change of family circumstances such as moving away, please email primary admissions@milton-keynes.gov.uk with your child’s name, date of birth, home address and details of the school your child will be attending. We are obliged to keep records of where children live and which school they attend.

If you have not been offered a higher preference school

If the school you are offered is not one of your higher preferences, this would have been due to the popularity of the schools you applied for and where your child was ranked in comparison to other applicants to these schools.  You can see the oversubscription criteria of the last child offered a school place at your preference schools on the allocation profile here for starting school for the first time or the allocation profile here for moving up to junior school

To pursue a higher preference school

If the school you are offered is not one of your higher preferences, your child's name will automatically be added to the waiting list and you do not need to contact us.  You can also request an appeal. If you do request an appeal, you are advised not to decline the place you have been offered in case an appeal or waiting list is not successful. The following information applies to Milton Keynes schools only.

Waiting lists

Waiting lists are ordered in line with the oversubscription criteria of each school and not by date received, so a child’s position on a list can move up or down. Waiting list position information will become available after 26 May 2023. For all Milton Keynes community and voluntary controlled schools waiting lists will be held for the academic year.  All other types of schools, including academies, voluntary aided and foundation schools, must hold their waiting lists until 31 December 2023.  After this date parents should check with the individual school to see whether the waiting list will continue to be held. 

If you do not wish to be considered for your higher preference schools and do not want to be added to the waiting list for these schools you must inform primaryadmissions@milton-keynes.gov.uk. Failure to do this means we will allocate a place to a higher preference school automatically, should a place become available in the later application rounds.

Further information about waiting lists can be found here.

Appeals

To appeal against not receiving a higher preference school please read all the information here.

If you applied for a school in Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire or Northamptonshire and have not been offered your choice

You need to contact the relevant local authority to enquire about waiting lists and appeals:

Bedford Borough Council:  admissions@bedford.gov.uk

Central Bedfordshire Council:  admissions@centralbedfordshire.gov.uk

Buckinghamshire:  www.buckscc.gov.uk/contactadmissions

Northamptonshire: schoolallocations.ncc@northnorthants.gov.uk

Applying after the closing date

The closing date for applications was 15 January 2023.  Applying after this date means your preferences will be considered after all the preferences received on time have been allocated, reducing the possibility that you may get one of your preferences.

The online application process is not available after 15 January 2023, you will need to complete a late application form for starting school or a late application for moving up to junior school if you are applying after this date.

If you apply late, the offer dates will be as follows:

Applications received between

Offer day

16 January 2023 to 25 April 2023

26 May 2023

26 April 2023 to 28 May 2023

30 June 2023

29 May 2023 to 30 June 2023

21 July 2023

Applications received thereafter will receive an outcome in August 2023

Before applying

It is VERY important that you read a guide for parents and carers which gives you all the information you need about the application and allocation process.

Research the schools that you are interested in applying to:

  • Visit schools you are interested in, most have open days you can go to (check the schools website for details).
  • Find your catchment area school There is no guarantee that your child will be offered a place at your local school.  This will depend on how many applications are received for the places available.
  • Understand the admission criteria for your preferred schools (read section E of the guide for parents and carers or visit the schools website for details).  This information should give you an indication of how likely your child is to be offered a place, especially for those schools that are oversubscribed.
  • Read the schools Ofsted reports, or visit school websites for information
  • Check the school league tables

Choosing school preferences

Once you have done your research you are ready to decide your preferred schools.  There is no right to a particular school place.  You can state four preferences for schools on your application. 

The school preferences you make are treated equally.  This means that no matter where you place a school in your list of preferences, it will be treated the same way as all other applicants who also chose that school, regardless of where they have placed the school in their list. 

The reason it is so important to list the schools in the order of preference is that if a place can be offered at more than one of your preferences, you will be offered the highest school possible from the list you provided. 

Naming other schools will not affect your chance of being offered a place at a higher preference school.  If there are no places available at any of your preferences, a place will be offered at the nearest school to your home address with a place still available.

Information relating to attending schools

Home to school transport

Parents and carers are responsible for ensuring their children attend school regularly and for arranging their safe arrival at school and journey home at the end of the day.  See if your child is eligible for assistance in getting to and from school and how to apply.

Free school meals

Parents and carers who receive certain benefits may be eligible for either pupil premium funding or free school meals.  Enquiries about free school meals should be made direct to individual schools.

Children with Special Educational Needs (SEN)

If you have any queries about your child’s special needs or wish to request a leaflet explaining the transfer process, please contact the SEN casework team.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Education Access Team (Primary Schools)

Education Access Team contact information

Civic, 1 Saxon Gate East, Central Milton Keynes MK9 3EJ