More information about school admissions

Yes. We'll send you details of how to apply online with your child's application form. You'll need to register your details before you can apply online.

On the day that notification letters are sent, you'll be able to log into the website and see your child's allocated school.

We strongly advise that you apply.

If you don't apply, your child will be offered a place at the nearest appropriate school which has places left only after all other applications have been dealt with.

We strongly advise that you apply for 3 different schools.

If you only apply for one school, and that school cannot offer your child a place, your child will be offered a place at the nearest appropriate school which has places left only after all other applications have been dealt with.

No, every child must apply for a school place. Everyone's preferences are then considered against each school's oversubscription criteria.

To find out which school admission zone your home address is in, please call the School Admissions team on 01642 201890. You can also look at a map of the school admission zones online.

Allocations operate an equal preference system. Each school has a set number of places available, and an admissions criteria. If there are less applications than the admission number, than all applications will be accepted and offered a place at that school. If there are more applications than places, the applications will be treated in the following manner:

• All preferences for a school, whether they are first, second or third preference, will be considered equally
• The published admissions criteria for the school is applied to all preferences to rank the applications in order
• This ranked list of applications is then used to allocate places at the school up to the maximum admission number
• Parents are then offered a place at the school with the highest preference that can be met

A school is classed as 'oversubscribed' if it receives more applications than the number of places it has available. If this happens, the admission criteria is used to decide which children get places at the school. The admissions criteria for all schools in Middlesbrough is given in the school admissions guide for parents.

Each school has an maximum number of children it can admit. If the number of preferences exceeds the admission number, the admission authority will consider a parent's preferences against the school's published admissions criteria.

Your child will be offered a place at your highest ranked preference school which has places available. You'll also have the right to appeal the decision. If none of your preferred schools have places available, your child will be offered a place at the nearest appropriate school which has places available.

Every parent or guardian has the right to appeal against a decision not to offer their child a place at a particular school. Appeals are heard by independent appeals panels. The panel will make a decision based on the case presented by the admissions authority and the parent or guardian.

Yes, both the admission authority and the parent or guardian must do what the panel says.

You can only contact the Local Government Ombudsman if you think that your child was refused a place at a school because of a mistake by the admissions authority, or if your appeal was handled incorrectly. Find out more about complaining to the Local Government Ombudsman.

All applications submitted late will be looked at after those which were submitted on time. If your application is late then your child may not get into one of your preferred schools. This applies even if you live in the school admission zone, or have another child already attending the school at the time of applying.

For community schools, it is Middlesbrough Council.

For academies, foundation schools, and voluntary-aided (VA) schools, it is the governing body or trustee board.

Yes. You are entitled to appeal for every school your child has been refused a place at.

If we cannot offer your child your first choice of school, we'll try to offer them a place at your second or third choice of school respectively. This is why it's very important to submit 3 choices.

If we're unable to offer a place at any of your 3 choices, we'll offer your child a place at the nearest suitable school to your home address which has places available.