The Citizens Portal for making an application for moving up to secondary school in September 2025 closed on 31 October 2024. If you made an application by this date you will receive a school place offer on 3 March 2025 (national offer day) and will be able to log on to the portal to view your offer.

The online portal is now closed.

Applications can now only be made on the late application form for moving up to secondary school.  Completed applications must be returned by email to secondaryadmissions@milton-keynes.gov.uk

It is recommended that posted paper forms are sent by recorded delivery.  The Access to Education team is not responsible for forms lost in the post and is unable to acknowledge receipt.

Before applying

It is VERY important that you read the 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:

• 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 D of the 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

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 preference 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 school place will be offered at the nearest school to your home address with a place still available.

Completing the late application form

• You are advised to use all four preferences.  Listing a school more than once or only listing one school will not increase your chances of receiving an offer
• Ensure all information has been completed correctly and no information missed.  Any mistakes could affect your application
• You are advised to choose your catchment school as one of your preferences, should higher preferences not be available
• Ensure your school preferences include a school(s) that your child is most likely to meet the admission criteria
• If you are moving house during the application process, refer to the Applying for a school place whilst moving home section of the parents guide
• If your preference is to attend a school outside of Milton Keynes, you are still required to apply via Milton Keynes City Council

Processing of applications

Between November 2024 and February 2025 the council will be processing applications.  Your child’s information is passed to all schools that you have applied to.  Foundation schools, Catholic schools and academies will then rank all applicants in order of the oversubscription criteria to enable us to allocate places in readiness for national offer day on 3 March 2025.

If you have applied for a school place outside of Milton Keynes, we will pass your child’s details onto the relevant local authority that will then apply their procedures and advise us if a place can be offered.

School place offer dates

For applications received by 31 October 2024, national offer day is 3 March 2025.

If you applied online, you can log onto the Citizen Portal to find out the school place that has been offered.  An email will be sent to you confirming the details (please note, emails will be sent throughout the day).  If you made a paper application you will be sent a letter by second class post. 

If you applied late the offer days are:

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.