Accepting the offer
The email and letter you receive will name the secondary school your child has been offered for September 2026.
You do not need to let us know if you intend to accept this offer. You only need to let us know by 16 March 2026 if you are refusing it. Details of how to do this will be included in your offer letter. If you do not refuse the offer, the school will update their records to show the offer has been accepted.
If your child attends an all-through school, or you have applied for a 14-19 school, you must tell your child's current school if they will no longer be attending in September 2026 because you have accepted an offer of a school place at a different school.
If your child has not been offered a place at any of the schools you applied for, this will be because those schools received more applications than there were places available, and other children met the admission criteria more closely than your child.
Read about school admission criteria.
We strongly encourage you not to refuse the offer you have received, so that your child has a guaranteed place for September 2026.
If you refuse the offer, the place may be given to a child on the school's waiting list.
If you take no action:
- your child keeps their position on the waiting lists for higher preference schools
- you can still appeal
- the outcome of any appeal you submit is not affected
Page last updated: 13 February 2025
