Primary school admissions - September 2026

If your child has SEN, but does not have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP), you should apply for a school place in the normal way. All schools should be able to support children with SEN.

The School Admissions Code of Practice requires children and young people with SEN to be treated fairly. As an admissions authority, we:

• Must consider applications for children who have SEN but do not have an EHCP based on the school’s published admissions criteria as part of normal admissions procedures
• Must not refuse to admit a child who has SEN but does not have an EHCP because they do not feel able to cater for those needs
• Must not refuse to admit a child on the grounds that they do not have an EHCP

When researching schools, we recommend that you:

• Learn about the support they offer children with SEN
• View their Local Offer and SEND policies

SEN Hubs

A small number of Peterborough schools have been designated as SEN 'Hubs'. This means that they are experienced in working with children and young people with a particular type of SEN in addition to the support that would normally be available in a mainstream school.

View the list of SEN Hubs on our primary school research page.

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS)

How SENDIASS can help you

The Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and Rutland SENDIASS Team offers impartial advice and information about Special Educational Needs. They help parents or carers, children and young people to navigate through the Special Educational Needs process.

SENDIASS can inform you about your rights to make sure the educational needs of the child or young person are met. They can give you information and advice to help you understand the areas of education, health and social care law, and to enable good working relationships with schools, education, children's services, health and other professionals. They offer information about support services and organisations and are able to help resolve disagreements.

The school admissions process differs whether the child or young person has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or not.

Children without an EHCP

If your child does not have an EHCP, then children and young people who have Special Educational Needs must be educated in mainstream settings, subject to certain very limited exceptions. This is set out in Section 34 of the Children and Families Act 2014. A school must not refuse to admit a child with Special Educational Needs because it does not feel able to carer for those needs.

If the mainstream school has a special unit, they are usually not special schools, but part of the mainstream school to which they are attached. However, places are in demand and those who outwardly show high levels of need are prioritised. Therefore, it’s unlikely that a child or young person would be able to access such provision without it being specified in an EHC plan.

Children with an EHCP

For those with an EHCP, you do not go through the usual school admissions process. The Statutory and Monitoring Team support you through the process of naming a school. You can request a particular nursery, school or college when you receive a draft EHC plan or an amendment notice setting out proposed amendments to an existing EHC plan. This might be when your child or young person is getting an EHC plan for the first time, if the EHC plan is being amended after an annual review, or if the EHC plan is being amended at any other time (for example, if your child or young person has moved to a different Local Authority in England).

Contact SENDIASS for help

Whether your child or young person has an EHCP or not, we can support you through the relevant process and, if needed, appealing the local authority’s decision on the school given or named in the EHCP. The best way to get in touch is to complete our online referral form.

You can also contact 0300 365 1020 or email SENDIASS@peterborough.gov.uk.

The service is available all year during office hours from Monday to Friday and a 24-hour answering service is available. Please leave your name, number and a brief message and a member of the team will get back to you within one working day.

Peterborough Information Network | SEND Information Advice and Support Service - SENDIASS (Local Offer).

If your child has an EHCP, you can choose either a mainstream school or a special school. We can only consider children with EHCPs for specialist educational settings.

• All governing bodies are required to admit to the school a child with an EHCP that names the school.
• Schools must admit children with EHCPs whether they have available places or not.
• The Equality Act 2010 prohibits schools from discriminating against disabled children and young people in respect of admissions for a reason related to their disability.

Find further information on the SEND Information Hub.

During your EHCP annual review meeting, you will discuss your child's needs and your school preferences. The annual review process will determine which school is named on your EHCP. Please contact your EHCP co-ordinator for further advice.

• If your child is awaiting an EHCP assessment, please contact your EHCP co-ordinator for advice.
• If your assessment for an EHCP has not been finalised, you should apply for a school place using the standard admissions process. This will ensure they have a school place if the EHCP is not agreed.

Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information, Advice and Support Service (SENDIASS)

How SENDIASS can help you

The Cambridgeshire, Peterborough and Rutland SENDIASS Team offers impartial advice and information about Special Educational Needs. They help parents or carers, children and young people to navigate through the Special Educational Needs process.

SENDIASS can inform you about your rights to make sure the educational needs of the child or young person are met. They can give you information and advice to help you understand the areas of education, health and social care law, and to enable good working relationships with schools, education, children's services, health and other professionals. They offer information about support services and organisations and are able to help resolve disagreements.

The school admissions process differs whether the child or young person has an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or not.

Children without an EHCP

If your child does not have an EHCP, then children and young people who have Special Educational Needs must be educated in mainstream settings, subject to certain very limited exceptions. This is set out in Section 34 of the Children and Families Act 2014. A school must not refuse to admit a child with Special Educational Needs because it does not feel able to carer for those needs.

If the mainstream school has a special unit, they are usually not special schools, but part of the mainstream school to which they are attached. However, places are in demand and those who outwardly show high levels of need are prioritised. Therefore, it’s unlikely that a child or young person would be able to access such provision without it being specified in an EHC plan.

Children with an EHCP

For those with an EHCP, you do not go through the usual school admissions process. The Statutory and Monitoring Team support you through the process of naming a school. You can request a particular nursery, school or college when you receive a draft EHC plan or an amendment notice setting out proposed amendments to an existing EHC plan. This might be when your child or young person is getting an EHC plan for the first time, if the EHC plan is being amended after an annual review, or if the EHC plan is being amended at any other time (for example, if your child or young person has moved to a different Local Authority in England).

Contact SENDIASS for help

Whether your child or young person has an EHCP or not, we can support you through the relevant process and, if needed, appealing the local authority’s decision on the school given or named in the EHCP. The best way to get in touch is to complete our online referral form.

You can also contact 0300 365 1020 or email SENDIASS@peterborough.gov.uk.

The service is available all year during office hours from Monday to Friday and a 24-hour answering service is available. Please leave your name, number and a brief message and a member of the team will get back to you within one working day.

Peterborough Information Network | SEND Information Advice and Support Service - SENDIASS (Local Offer).

Looked after children (also known as children in care) and previously looked after children have the highest priority for school places.

Looked after children are those who are in the care of the local authority or are being provided with accommodation by a local authority in England in the exercise of their social services functions.

Previously looked after children are those who immediately after being in care (as defined above) became subject to an adoption order, child arrangements order or special guardianship order. They are also those who appear to the admission authority to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care because of being adopted.

Who should apply for a school place depends on who is responsible for the child:

• Social workers must apply on behalf of looked after children
  OR
• Foster carers must apply on behalf of their foster children
  OR
• Adoptive parents must apply on behalf of their adopted children

Our School Admissions Team does not have access to care records. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the social worker, foster carer or adoptive parent to provide evidence to support the application:

• An adoption certificate
• A special guardianship order
• A residency order
• A child arrangement order

You also need to provide contact details for the social worker assigned to the child.

As the admissions authority, we must treat a family posted to our area, whose posting abroad comes to an end, as meeting the residency criteria for the catchment area. This applies even if no house is owned in our area. You must provide us with proof of posting before we can do this.

We will allocate a school place in advance if accompanied by an official government letter declaring a relocation date and intended address.

We will accept a unit postal address or a quartering area address for applications from UK Service Personnel in the absence of a new postal address.

View our information and policy on our deferrals, accelerations and delays page. 

You may have multiple children going through the school admissions process at the same time – i.e. twins, triplets, siblings born in the same academic year etc.

You must apply separately for each child. You must also refer to each child on application forms. Please state if the children are twins, triplets, multiple-birth etc.

We will make every effort to offer places together for these children. Many schools give priority for siblings.

By sibling, we mean:

• Brother / sister
• Half-brother / half-sister
• Adopted brother / adopted sister
• Step-brother / step-sister
• Child of the parent / carer’s partner

Many schools give priority to siblings. When you apply, it is important to tell us if your child has a sibling already attending your preferred school.

You should also tell us on your application the names and birth dates of any sibling enrolled in the school when your child starts.

By sibling, we mean:

• Brother / sister
• Half-brother / half-sister
• Adopted brother / adopted sister
• Step-brother / step-sister
• Child of the parent / carer’s partner

In every case, the children must be living in the same family unit at the same address.

We will make every effort to place these children together at the same school.

To apply, you must live in Peterborough. If you are moving from overseas or out of area, you cannot apply based on a future house move.

When you apply may affect when your application will be processed. Please email admissions@peterborough.gov.uk for advice. You may need to provide evidence of a previous application to the local authority.

To have the school offer based on a future house move, include it on your application form along with supporting evidence. You must prove to the school your child lives at this address before September start date.

If you change your address after you have submitted your application, you must tell the Admissions Team right away. You must complete an amendment form on our website.

If you have recently moved, and your current address is not the same as the one on your application, you need to provide evidence. You must provide proof that you were living at the address at the time of application with either:

• a closing Council Tax bill, or
• a closing utility bill for gas, water or electricity.

You will also need proof of your new address. To use an address, you must live there permanently and prove you have no connection to your old address. We will investigate all address changes to make sure they are permanent, not temporary for a preferred school. We cannot consider a temporary address. This includes:

• other property owned by the applicant
• temporary rental agreements
• temporary moves to live with friends or family.

We can only accept one application per child. We can only consider the application from one home address.

When parents who live separately share responsibility for a child, the child’s residence is where they spend most school nights – Sunday to Thursday. You should give this address as the main home address for your child on the application.

Where residency is equally split, we will consider the child’s main residence as the home where:

• The child is registered with the GP or health professional
• The child benefit money is paid

If you are applying to a particular school for religious reasons, you will need to submit two applications:

• An online application to our School Admissions Team
• A Supplementary Information Form (SIF) to the school directly

Religious schools usually have their own admissions criteria and policies. Where a religious school receives more applications than it has places available, it will prioritise applications according to its admissions criteria. Some of these criteria may relate to religious allegiance. If you wish your child to be considered for a place under the religious criteria, you need to submit a SIF. The SIF may ask you for information such as the name of your child’s church / place of worship.

Please contact the school directly to obtain a copy of a SIF.

Please email admissions@peterborough.gov.uk for advice.

Email: admissions@peterborough.gov.uk 
Phone: 01733 864007 (open Monday to Friday, 9am to 2pm - excluding bank holidays)