Waiting lists and improved offers
Waiting lists
If you do not receive an offer for a place at your higher preferred Birmingham schools, your child's name will automatically be placed on the waiting lists for those schools. This does not apply to the Birmingham grammar schools where your child must have achieved the qualifying score of 205 to be included on their waiting list.
If you wish for your child to be added to the waiting list for one of your lower preferred schools that you included on your application, contact us by:
- phone: 0121 303 1888
- email: admissions@birmingham.gov.uk
To be considered for any schools that you did not include in your application, you must submit a late change of preferences form. Your child cannot be added to the waiting list for a school that you did not include in your application by emailing or phoning us.
Waiting lists are compiled in the same order as the school's oversubscription criteria, for example, siblings first. For further details, view the Secondary school admission arrangements.
Late applicants are also added in this order, so your child's name could move up or down the waiting list. Having a place on the waiting list does not guarantee that a place will become available.
Information on waiting list positions will not be available until Monday 22 March 2027.
From Monday 22 March 2027, you can phone us on 0121 303 1888. We will let you know who holds the waiting list for the school you want. This will be either school admissions or the school itself.
Waiting list advice will not be available before this date to allow time for offers to be accepted and refused.
Improved offers
The admissions team will send you an offer letter if a school place becomes available for your child from a waiting list.
If you have previously been offered a school place and then later receive an offer for an improved school place from a waiting list, you will have 7 days to contact us to keep the school place previously offered to you. If you do not contact us within 7 days of receiving your offer letter, your original offer will be withdrawn automatically.
For schools outside of Birmingham, you will need to check the local authority’s website for information about their waiting lists.
Page last updated: 14 August 2026
