Sibling Priority in School Admissions: Why the Published Catchment Cut-Off Might Not Apply to You

You have found your target school’s published cut-off distance and it looks worryingly close for your home address. But if you already have an older child at that school, your application may be ranked before distance is even considered.

This is one of the most misunderstood parts of school admissions sibling rules in England and Wales. Parents often treat the last-distance-offered figure as a hard boundary that applies to everyone. In reality it marks where places ran out for the last group admitted, usually families applying on distance, and sibling applicants are often ranked before that point.

Every admission authority in England and Wales sets its own oversubscription criteria: in England within the School Admissions Code 2021, in Wales within the Welsh Government’s School Admissions Code. There is no single national order, but in England some rules are fixed. A child whose EHC plan names the school is admitted before any criteria are applied, and looked-after and previously looked-after children must come first in the criteria themselves (Code paragraph 1.7). Sibling priority, where a school uses it, commonly comes next, with distance or a catchment area after that. In Wales, a child whose individual development plan names the school is likewise admitted first; after that, check your council’s published criteria.

That ordering matters. If sibling priority ranks above distance, a sibling applicant is placed before the distance criterion is reached at all.

The last-distance-offered figure a council publishes is usually the distance from the school of the last child offered a place under the criterion where places ran out, most often the distance criterion. Children admitted under earlier criteria, such as looked-after children and siblings, can live further away than that figure, so it does not describe their chances. What it does show is how far places reached for families applying on distance alone, and that moves every year with the number of sibling and other priority applicants. Councils define the figure slightly differently, so check the notes on your council’s allocation tables.

You can see how a school’s published cut-off has moved from year to year, and compare your own distance with it, using our Admissions & Catchment Checker.

Don't assume your family situation automatically qualifies. Admission authorities differ on whether a step-sibling, half-sibling, or foster child living at the same address counts, and some require the sibling to still be attending the school at the point the younger child would start (not just have attended in the past). Some schools also give priority to children at a linked infant or feeder school, which is a separate criterion.

Because these definitions sit in each school's own policy rather than a single national rule, the only reliable way to confirm eligibility is to read the specific admission authority's current criteria — not general guidance, and not what applied when your older child was admitted, since policies can change between rounds.

If a school is heavily oversubscribed within the sibling category itself, distance often comes back into play as the tie-breaker among sibling applicants. A sibling link improves your position in the queue; it doesn't remove distance from the equation entirely if there are more sibling applicants than places.

For England, if a Reception, Year 1 or Year 2 place is refused and you appeal, remember that these fall under the infant class size rules: appeals can only succeed on three narrow grounds — that admitting the child would not breach the 30-pupil limit, that the admission arrangements were unlawful or not properly applied and the child would otherwise have been offered a place, or that the decision was one no reasonable admission authority would have made. They are not decided on the general 'prejudice' balance used for other year groups. It's also worth knowing that for the normal admissions round in England, waiting lists must stay open at least until 31 December of the admission year (School Admissions Code 2021, paragraph 2.15), so a sibling place further down the waiting list can still come through after the initial offer round.

With open days running through September and October and closing dates approaching (31 October for secondary schools in England, each council’s own date in Wales), now is the time to check where you stand, sibling link or not. Use the Admissions & Catchment Checker to compare your distance with a school’s past cut-offs.

If you are weighing up several schools at once, the school matcher can help you compare options, and if a place is refused, our school admissions appeals guide explains the process step by step.