What's New in Merton

Salford school pages now show a catchment map for 14 schools — the first the borough has had. Salford's council-run primary schools do not use catchments at all: they rank by looked-after status, then siblings, then distance. But its faith schools admit by PARISH, and the council draws each parish boundary on a map. Those boundaries are stored in the council's files as real lines rather than pictures, so they have been read exactly rather than traced, and positioned using the Ordnance Survey grid printed on each map. Catholic and Church of England parishes cover the same streets as each other, so these areas overlap — that is how parishes work, not a mistake.

Devon school pages now show admission criteria for September 2027 entry at 65 more schools — every community and voluntary controlled school the county runs, 68 in all. Devon publishes each school's own policy only behind a staff login, but the criteria those schools share are set out in the county's co-ordinated admissions scheme, which its Cabinet determined in February 2026 and publishes openly on its committee site. Three of the seven rules turn on whether a child lives in the school's catchment area, and Devon's catchment maps are already on these pages. The scheme also confirms Devon has no community or voluntary controlled secondary schools at all.

Derbyshire school pages now show admission criteria and an admission number for September 2027 entry at 28 more schools, all of them run by Embark Federation. The federation sets one policy for every school it runs, so a single document determined in February 2026 gives each of them its ranked criteria and the number of places it expects to offer. Three of those rules turn on whether a child lives in the school's normal area, which is Derbyshire's own catchment definition — so for these schools, where you live is part of the order in which places are allocated.

Norfolk school pages now show admission criteria for September 2027 entry at 39 more schools, all of them academies run by the Diocese of Norwich Education and Academies Trust. The trust is the admission authority for its academies and sets one policy for all of them, so a single determined document — approved by its board in December 2025 — gives every one of those schools its ranked criteria and its admission number for the year. Two schools named in the policy have since closed and are not shown, and one academy has no church designation, so the faith criterion that applies at the others is correctly left off its list.

North East Lincolnshire school pages now show a catchment map for the first time — 57 of the area's 60 primary and secondary schools. The council publishes no maps at all: its catchment is a 2,913-row list of streets, and until now you had to read down it to find your road. Those streets have been matched to Ordnance Survey's own road data and turned into areas, so every point on the map belongs to the school whose listed street is nearest — the same answer the list gives, drawn. Where the council names two schools for one street, as it does for the Scartho and Waltham infant and junior pairs, both are shown.

Luton school pages now show a catchment map for the first time — 51 of the town's 59 primary and secondary schools. Luton publishes no catchment maps; it offers a road-by-road checker instead. The full road list behind that checker has been matched to Ordnance Survey's road data and turned into areas, so you can see the shape rather than look your street up one at a time. Luton refers to many of its schools by a short name covering a pair — Challney means both Challney High Schools, Warden Hill means the infant and the junior — and in those cases the area is shown against both.

Suffolk school pages now show a catchment map for the first time — 152 of the county's 299 primary and secondary schools. Suffolk draws each school's catchment by hand on an Ordnance Survey map and publishes it as a picture, so the areas could not simply be read across; each one had to be measured off the map. What makes that safe is the faint kilometre grid printed on every sheet: it fixes the scale and position exactly, and the areas came out accurate to about 14 metres. As a check, the 15 secondary catchments were measured separately and still fit together across the county without overlapping. Sheets that did not pass that check were left out rather than estimated.

Cheshire East school pages now show a catchment map for 126 of the area's 147 primary and secondary schools, up by three. Cheshire East shares a map service with Cheshire West and Chester, and the two councils' areas sit in the same layer, separated only by a marker field. Some areas are shared between schools and are labelled as such on the map; those are shown against every school named, not just the first. Each area added was confirmed by checking the school falls inside the area bearing its name.

North Yorkshire school pages now show a catchment map for 299 of the area's 331 primary and secondary schools, up by eleven. North Yorkshire's published map is unusual in naming each area only by school, with no reference number or address to confirm it by, and several names are cut short partway through a word. Rather than match on the name alone, each area was checked against the map itself: the areas tile the county without overlapping, and every school added sits inside the area carrying its name. Areas that failed that check were left out rather than guessed at.

Cheshire West and Chester school pages now show a catchment map for 121 of the area's 147 primary and secondary schools, up by four. Cheshire West and Cheshire East publish their catchments together, from a single shared map service, with one field marking which of the two councils each area belongs to — so reading it without that filter mixes the two authorities. The areas carry no reference number, so each was confirmed by checking that the school sits inside the area named after it and that neighbouring areas do not overlap.

East Riding of Yorkshire school pages now show a catchment map for 134 of the area's 141 primary and secondary schools, up by ten. The maps were never missing — they were filed under the wrong schools. The council's boundary layer still lists several schools by the reference number they held before they amalgamated or became academies, so the areas for Hilderthorpe, Swinemoor, Croxby, Quay, Sigglesthorne and Willerby Carr Lane were each attached to a school that has since closed. Tracing every old reference to the school that replaced it recovered all ten.

Hampshire school pages now show a catchment map for 466 of the county's 491 primary and secondary schools, up by four: Danebury, Kings Furlong Infant, The Blue Coat School Basingstoke and King's Academy Brune Park. Hampshire's map service labels some areas with the name a school used before it changed — the area for The Ferns Primary Academy is still marked Fernhill Primary School, which closed some years ago. Because Hampshire has had schools with confusingly similar names, each area was matched on the school's reference number and then checked against the closed school's own record, never on the name alone.

Wiltshire school pages now show a catchment map for 213 of the county's 230 primary and secondary schools, up by six, including Wilton, Rowde, Ludwell and Marden Vale. Two further areas were deliberately left out. Wiltshire's published map file prints one school's name against another school's reference number in two places — Willowbrook against Oasis Academy Longmeadow, and Christ Church against Bradford on Avon Christchurch — and nothing else the council publishes settles which school each area belongs to. Showing a family the wrong catchment is worse than showing none, so both are on hold pending a check.

Peterborough school pages now show a catchment map for 65 of the city's 77 primary and secondary schools, up by six: Great Haddon, Hampton Lakes, Thorpe, Southfields, Saint Michael and Dogsthorpe Infant. As in several other authorities, the cause was reference numbers rather than missing maps — the city's map layer lists many of its academies under the number of the school they replaced, so the catchment looked as though it belonged to a school that had closed. A handful of Peterborough schools still have no published catchment and are being followed up with the council.

Devon school pages now show a catchment map for 338 of the county's 351 primary and secondary schools, up by thirteen. Most of the additions are schools built in the last few years on the edges of Exeter and Plymouth — Sherford Vale, Matford Brook, Monkerton, Westclyst and Countess Wear among them. Devon had already drawn their designated areas on its published map; they had simply never been read across. Devon publishes the same areas from two separate map services, and the two agree on the size of each area to within about one per cent, so each was used to check the other before anything was added.

School pages now show thirteen full years of applications and offers, back to September 2014. Until now the early years looked patchy, but the data was never missing. When a school becomes an academy it is given a new reference number, and its earlier history stays filed under the old one — so a school that converted appeared to start life on the day it changed status. That earlier history has now been brought in and linked to the school it belongs to, which means thousands of schools gain years of earlier application, offer and first-preference figures.

Salford schools now show their admission criteria for September 2027 entry — 57 of the city's 93 schools. Salford publishes each school's full criteria on its own page but does not date any of them, so six entries that had previously been labelled as 2027 arrangements now carry a note saying the year is unconfirmed rather than asserting one. The rules themselves are the council's own text; it is only the year they apply to that the council does not state.

Manchester schools now show their admission criteria for September 2026 entry — 77 of the city's 169 schools — and 60 are already published for September 2027. One judgement worth explaining: the city's determined 2027-28 file is named as though it were a draft, but it sits on the council's own page of determined arrangements, and the page the council publishes a document on is a better guide to its status than the name of the file. Manchester publishes no catchment areas; its community schools rank children by distance from home.

Stockport schools now show their admission criteria for September 2027 entry — 56 of the borough's 99 schools — and 94 show their catchment area on the map. The council's determined arrangements cover the schools it admits to directly. The rest of the borough's schools are academies, each its own admission authority, and their arrangements sit on their own or their trust's website; those are being worked through school by school.

Bolton schools now show their published admission number for September 2027 entry — 98 of the borough's 117 schools, up from almost none — and 62 show their full admission criteria for that year. The council's determined arrangements cover the schools it admits to, and the rest came from the schools' and trusts' own websites. Where a school's arrangements are genuinely not published anywhere, that is now recorded as such rather than left looking like an oversight.

Almost every Liverpool school — 143 of 146 — now shows its published admission number for September 2027 entry, and 88 show their full admission criteria for that year. The admission number is the figure that tells you how many places a school actually has, and it is the one most often missing. Liverpool's schools are largely academies and voluntary-aided schools that set their own rules, so the criteria came from the schools themselves rather than from the council, and the remainder are still being collected.

Cheshire East schools now show their admission criteria for September 2027 entry — 113 of the borough's 147 schools — and 123 show their catchment area on the map. The council's determined arrangements cover the schools it admits to; the rest came from the academy trusts that run them. Where a school's own policy disagreed with a figure already held, the disagreement is recorded and the existing value kept rather than quietly overwritten.

Cheshire West and Chester schools now show their admission criteria for September 2027 entry — 126 of the borough's 147 schools — and 117 show their catchment area on the map. The council publishes only the current round's guide and withdraws the previous one, so earlier years are thin here by the council's choice rather than through unfinished work. 58 schools also show their published admission number for 2027 entry.

Halton is now complete for September 2027 entry: all 57 of the borough's schools show their full admission criteria and all 57 show their published admission number. The council's two annual booklets carry, for every school, the admission number for two years, how many families expressed each preference, the final allocation, the criterion the last place was offered under and the distance it reached. One caution: the council's own counts of places offered run slightly higher than the national figures for the same year, because they count a different thing — both are shown, neither is overwritten.

Stoke-on-Trent schools now show their admission criteria for September 2027 entry — 27 of the city's 86 schools — and 49 show their catchment area on the map. Most of the remaining gap sits inside a single academy trust that runs a large share of the city's primary schools and does not publish its members' determined arrangements centrally, so those are being chased school by school. Where a school's rules genuinely are not published anywhere yet, the page now says so rather than showing an empty space that reads like an oversight.

Herefordshire schools now show their admission criteria for September 2027 entry — 46 of the county's 93 schools, up from a handful — and 81 show their catchment area on the map. Published admission numbers remain thin here for a reason worth stating: the county's admissions booklet gives the number only for secondary schools, so primary admission numbers have to come from each school's own determined arrangements and are still being collected.

Wolverhampton schools now show their admission criteria for September 2026 entry — 91 of the city's 93 schools — and 40 are already published for September 2027. The gap between those two years is the council's, not ours: Wolverhampton has not yet published 2027-28 arrangements for its academies and voluntary-aided schools, which was re-confirmed against its own index page. The city publishes no catchment areas; its schools rank children by distance from home rather than by a boundary.

Walsall schools now show their admission criteria for September 2027 entry — 52 of the borough's 104 schools — and 45 show their published admission number. Where a school runs different rules for different entry points, those are now held separately, including the Year 3 transfer round that junior schools use, which had previously been missing. Walsall publishes no catchment areas: its schools rank children by distance from home rather than by a boundary.

Sandwell schools now show their admission criteria for September 2027 entry — 61 of the borough's 115 schools, up from a handful — and 57 show their published admission number. Sandwell's schools are largely academies, each its own admission authority, so most of this came from the schools and their trusts rather than from the council. The borough publishes no catchment areas; its schools rank children by distance rather than by a boundary, so there is none to show.

Birmingham schools now show their admission criteria for September 2027 entry — 165 of the city's 381 schools — and 137 show their published admission number. Most of the city's schools are academies that set their own arrangements, so these came from the schools' and trusts' own websites rather than from the council. Birmingham does not publish catchment areas: the city's community schools rank children by distance from home to school rather than by a boundary, so an empty map here is the accurate answer rather than a gap.

Almost every Shropshire school — 142 of 147 — now shows its published admission number for September 2027 entry, up from none, and 137 show their catchment area on the map. 73 schools show their full admission criteria for that year. The admission number is the figure that tells you how many places a school actually has, and it is the one most often missing; the county publishes it for every school it co-ordinates, including the academies that set their own rules.

Worcestershire schools now show their admission criteria for September 2027 entry — 176 of the county's 225 schools — and 151 show their published admission number, up from none. 206 schools show their catchment area on the map. The county publishes its own determined arrangements for the schools it admits to, and most of the rest came from the academy trusts that run them, where one document usually covers every school in the trust.

Staffordshire schools now show their admission criteria for September 2027 entry — 158 of the county's 380 schools — and 126 show their published admission number, up from almost none. 320 schools show their catchment area on the map. Staffordshire publishes determined arrangements for the schools it admits to itself; the county's academies each set their own, and the council does not publish those, so the remainder sit on individual school and trust websites and are still being worked through.

Solihull schools now show their admission criteria for September 2027 entry — 62 of the borough's 74 schools, up from a handful — and 57 show their catchment area on the map. 58 schools show their published admission number for that year. The borough's own determined arrangements covered the schools it admits to, and the rest came from the academy trusts that run them, where a single trust document often covers every one of its schools at once.

Dudley schools now show their admission criteria for September 2027 entry — 86 of the borough's 97 schools, up from none — and 81 show their published admission number. One thing worth saying plainly, because it is easy to misread an empty map: Dudley does not publish catchment areas, and its determined arrangements do not use them. The borough ranks children by straight-line distance from home to the school's main entrance, with random allocation as the tie-break, so there is no boundary to show and no address that falls inside or outside one.

Telford and Wrekin schools now show their admission criteria for September 2027 entry — 64 of the borough's 69 schools, up from none — and 60 show their catchment area on the map. The borough's own determined arrangements cover the schools it admits to, and the remainder came from the academy trusts that run them. 35 schools also show their published admission number for that year, which is the figure that tells you how many places are actually available.

Warwickshire now shows catchment and priority areas for 219 of its 234 schools, including — for the first time anywhere in the West Midlands — the Catholic priority areas published as council data, and the priority circles the county's grammar schools use. Those circles are defined in the policies as a radius around a named landmark with no grid reference given, so each was fitted to the county's own published boundary and then checked twice against independently known points before being used. 174 schools show their admission criteria for September 2027 entry.

Almost every school in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole — 89 of 90 — now shows its published admission number for September 2025 entry, and 21 show their full admission criteria for September 2027. Ten Poole schools also gained catchment areas, built from the lists of road names their trust publishes alongside its maps. Those shapes cover the streets the trust names, so they are smaller than the published area rather than larger, and they cannot show where a road is split between two schools by house number.

Swindon schools now show their published admission number for September 2026 entry — 37 of the borough's 80 schools, up from none — and 32 show their full admission criteria for that year. Most came from the academy trusts that run the schools rather than from the council. One trap this turned up, and which is now guarded against: a trust document that prints nursery admission numbers in the same table as the Reception ones will quietly hand you the wrong figure for the wrong year group.

Devon schools now show their admission criteria for September 2026 entry — 120 of the county's 351 schools — and 144 show their published admission number for September 2027. Devon's own policy library sits behind a login that we do not attempt, so these came from the schools' and trusts' own websites instead, one trust at a time. Several trusts publish a single table giving every member school's admission number, catchment and ranked criteria, which is the cheapest and most reliable source available anywhere in the county.

Dorset schools now show their admission criteria for September 2026 entry — 81 of the county's 148 schools, up from almost none — and 57 show their published admission number for that year. Most of this came not from the council but from the academy trusts that run the schools: where a council publishes nothing, the trust that runs a school usually publishes everything, and one trust document often covers a dozen schools at once. Ten Poole and Dorset schools also gained catchment areas built from the road lists their trust publishes alongside the map.

Every school in Bath and North East Somerset now shows its published admission number, and 75 of the 77 show their full admission criteria for September 2027 entry, up from a handful. One correction worth stating plainly: this council does not publish priority-area maps, though it had previously been recorded as doing so. Every page of both determined 2027-28 booklets was checked. What it uses instead is a 1.5-mile radius around four schools, and those are now held and shown as circles on the map.

Gloucestershire is now effectively complete for September 2027 entry: 278 of the county's 282 schools show their full admission criteria and 281 show their published admission number, both up from almost nothing. The county publishes a single composite document covering every school it co-ordinates admissions for, including academies and church schools that set their own rules, so one source carried nearly the whole county. Search any Gloucestershire postcode to see how each school would rank an application from that address.

Bradford schools now show their admission criteria for September 2027 entry — 100 of the district's 193 schools. Secondary policies came from the council's own document service, and a further group from three academy trusts that publish every member school's policy centrally, one of them going back five years. All 43 of the district's priority-area boundaries were independently re-checked against the schools they belong to and confirmed correct. Bradford publishes no central index of primary academy arrangements, so those remain school by school.

Doncaster schools now show their admission criteria for September 2026 entry — 78 of the borough's 119 schools, up from a handful. The council publishes its academy and church-school policies as a single 487-page bundle with no per-school headings, so each section was identified by the postcode printed in it and, where that was missing, by the school's own logo. Doncaster's 2027-28 secondary bundle is still marked draft, so nothing has been taken from it; for 2027 entry only the council's own community schools are published.

Rotherham schools now show their admission criteria for September 2027 entry — 94 of the borough's 112 schools — and 81 show their published admission number. The council's determined primary booklet carries one section per academy trust, each listing its member schools before the rules they share, which is how most of these were covered in a single pass. A separate section gives the rules for moving from infant to junior school, so junior schools now show their Year 3 criteria as well as Reception.

Hull schools now show their admission criteria for September 2027 entry — 44 of the city's 83 schools — and 41 show their published admission number. Hull is fully academised, so the council holds no arrangements of its own; what it publishes is a directory linking to each school's policy, and every one of those was followed. Two trust-wide documents cover a further group of schools between them. Several Hull schools already publish 2028-29 documents; those are consultation drafts, not decisions, and have deliberately been left out.

Almost every Calderdale school — 93 of 94 — now shows its admission criteria and its published admission number for September 2027 entry, up from almost none. Calderdale publishes each school's rules as its own web page, and the section had moved to a new address that allows automated reading, so all of it could be collected directly from the council. The guides also give the previous year's admission number, how many families put each school first, second and third, and how many places were allocated.

Milton Keynes schools now show their admission criteria for September 2027 entry — 43 of 106 — and 34 show their published admission number. The figures come from the council's determined admission-number schedule. One trap worth knowing about: the 2027 schedule carries a 2026 heading on its continuation page, and it was only the fact that four schools differ from the genuine 2026 document that proved the block really is 2027 data. Where that could not be proved, nothing was written.

Reading schools now show their admission criteria for September 2027 entry — 23 of the borough's 51 schools, up from one — and 22 show their published admission number. These come from the council's determined admission arrangements and cover the schools Reading itself admits to. Most of the remainder are academies and church schools, each its own admission authority, which publish their arrangements on their own websites.

Bracknell Forest schools now show their admission criteria and published admission numbers for September 2027 entry — 15 schools show the ranking and 14 show the number, out of 36. These are the schools the council itself admits to; the borough's academies and church schools set their own arrangements. The council's designated-area map service is not yet included, because it carries no licence statement covering re-use and we would rather ask than assume.

Medway's admission criteria and numbers now separate September 2026 entry from September 2027 — 25 schools for 2026 and 20 for 2027. The council's web pages carry its ranking with no year on them at all, which is why these were previously shown against the current year only; the determined co-ordinated scheme states the year on its own face and again inside the sibling rule, so that is what they are dated from. Medway's secondary schools all set their own arrangements, so the council publishes none for them.

Forty-nine West Sussex schools now say plainly that they have no catchment area, rather than showing nothing. The county publishes the list: Catholic schools, some Church of England schools, free schools and academies that use a parish or no area at all. For those schools, where you live does not give you priority — and knowing that is as useful as a boundary. Admission criteria for September 2027 entry now cover 136 of the county's 265 schools. The county's other catchments are published only through a map viewer that does not release the underlying shapes.

West Berkshire schools now show their admission criteria and published admission numbers for September 2027 entry — 44 schools show the ranking and 45 show the number, out of 77. The figures come from the admission-number schedule inside the council's determined arrangements, including the schools whose number has been reduced, which the council marks in place. The schools not covered are mostly academies and church schools that set their own arrangements and publish them themselves.

Brighton and Hove's secondary catchment postcode lists have been corrected. The council publishes them as a two-column table, and the version held here had the two columns interleaved, which put some postcodes in the wrong catchment. All six catchments have been re-read, along with the council's own notes on streets that straddle a boundary — Manor Way, Manor Hill, Wilson Avenue and Tongdean Lane all have odd and even numbers in different catchments. Admission numbers for September 2025 and 2026 entry now cover 55 of the city's 57 schools.

Almost every Portsmouth school — 55 of 56 — now shows its published admission number for September 2027 entry, academies included. The council's own admissions policies cover only the ten schools it runs, but its school directory lists the number for the rest. Seven schools also now show their catchment area on the map. Portsmouth publishes those as printed maps with no coordinates attached, so each boundary was fixed using the street names printed on it; treat the edge as accurate to about thirty metres.

Hampshire's admission criteria now cover September 2026 entry as well as September 2027 — 354 schools for 2026 and 368 for 2027, out of 491. Hampshire removes each year's documents from its website once they are superseded, so the older arrangements came from the papers behind the council's own decision to determine them. Sixteen junior schools are deliberately left without a 2025-26 ranking: the council did not publish which juniors were federated with their infant school that year, and the federated ranking differs.

Admission criteria for September 2027 entry are now held for 140 of East Sussex's 171 state schools, up from almost none, and 169 show their admission number. East Sussex publishes each academy's, church school's and free school's own policy — 233 documents in all — and those schools set their own rules rather than following the county's, so this is the ranking that actually applies. Twenty of the council's own links point at documents the schools have since moved; those are shown as missing on the school's page rather than filled in with a guess.

Every school in Windsor and Maidenhead now shows its admission criteria for September 2027 entry — all 60 — and 58 of them show their designated area on the map. The council publishes a map for each school, and those files turn out to carry the area as exact geometry rather than as a picture, so these boundaries are the council's own lines and not an approximation. Admission numbers now go back to 2018, and the allocation reports add how many families applied, how many places were offered, and how far from the school the last place went.

Rutland describes its school catchments in words rather than on a map: each one is a list of villages. Those lists have been turned into catchment areas for 10 of the county's primary schools, built from official parish boundaries. One school, English Martyrs Catholic Voluntary Academy, has a catchment covering the whole county. Four schools are still to come — two need their own admissions policies locating, and two cover only part of Oakham and Uppingham rather than the whole town.

Southend publishes its school catchments as a street-by-street directory rather than a map — 3,734 streets, each naming its catchment primary and secondary school. All of it has now been read and turned into catchment areas for 34 schools. The seven secondary catchments fit together and cover the whole city, which is what the council's own data says they should. A handful of long roads that the council splits between two schools by house number are left out for now, so a few addresses on those roads are not covered yet.

Catchment areas for 49 Leicestershire primary schools are now on the map. The county publishes a catchment map for each school, but those maps carry no coordinates — so each one was placed by matching the road network drawn on it against Ordnance Survey's open road data, with the 1 km National Grid printed on the sheet fixing the scale. Every boundary was checked to confirm the school falls inside its own catchment. Search a Leicestershire postcode to see which catchment it falls in. Maps for the remaining schools are still being worked through.

Sunderland: 55 schools now show their full admission rules for September 2026, up from eight. Sunderland publishes one 320-page guide that reproduces the determined arrangements of every primary school and academy in the city, including the two multi-academy trusts — Aim High and Inspire — that set one ranked order for all their schools. Most Sunderland primaries rank children in care first, then siblings, then exceptional medical or psychological need, then distance. 87 of the city's 99 state schools already show their rules for September 2027.

Darlington: 36 of the borough's 37 state schools now show their full admission rules for September 2026, up from 18, and every secondary shows how many Year 7 places it is offering. Darlington's parents' guides reproduce each school's determined arrangements and admission number, and several schools share one ranked order — the four Catholic primaries, the two Church of England primaries, and the academies in each trust. The council has not yet published determined arrangements for September 2027; the latest it publishes are for 2026.

Newcastle: 62 of the city's 89 state schools now show their full admission rules for September 2027, and 88 show how many places they are offering. Newcastle schools do not use catchment areas — after children in care and medical need, most rank by sibling, then by staff, then by straight-line distance, and secondary transfer runs on named feeder schools. Ten more schools' rules were read this week straight from the policy each school links from the council's own school directory.

Middlesbrough: 44 school admission zones are now on the map. Middlesbrough Council ranks children who live in a school's admission zone above everyone except children in care, so the zone decides most places — and until now you could only see it as a 25 MB scanned plan. Every non-Catholic primary zone (30), every Catholic primary zone (11) and the three secondary zones now show as real boundaries you can search an address against. All 49 of the town's state schools already show their full admission rules for September 2027, taken from the council's own parents' guide.

Darlington: the first school priority areas are now on the map. Darlington gives rural families a named alternative school, and the council publishes the boundaries of areas C, D and H — south of the B6279 in Heighington and Coniscliffe, west of the East Coast Main Line in Sadberge and Whessoe, and south of the A66 in Hurworth. Those three areas now show against Harrowgate Hill Primary, the Federation of Mowden Schools and Firthmoor Primary. Darlington has not yet published its determined admission arrangements for September 2027; the latest it publishes are for September 2026.

Redcar and Cleveland: 28 schools now show their admission rules for September 2027 and 28 show their admission number. The council itself only admits for two schools — Hummersea and Newcomen — so most of the borough's rules come from the academy trusts, and several publish one policy covering all their schools: Galileo for ten primaries (with each school's 2027/28 admission number), Steel River for four, Ironstone for six and Spark for Saltburn, Huntcliff and Laurence Jackson. All of them rank by the school's admission zone, and 53 of those zones are already on the map.

Stockton-on-Tees: 37 schools now show their admission rules for September 2026 alongside the 44 that show them for September 2027, and every one of the borough's 73 state schools shows its September 2027 admission number. Stockton ranks children in care first, then siblings, then families living in the school's admission zone, then distance measured as the crow flies. The zones themselves are named in the rules but the council does not publish a map of them — we have asked where the boundaries are drawn.

Swindon: eight school catchment areas are now on the map. Beechcroft Infant, Bishopstone CE, Colebrook Junior, East Wichel, Eldene, Lainesmead, Lawn and Westrop primaries each now show the actual boundary Swindon Borough Council draws for them for September 2027 entry, so you can see at a glance whether an address falls inside. These are the council's own published boundaries, traced from its 2027-2028 catchment map pack and fixed to the Ordnance Survey National Grid printed on those maps. Swindon only sets catchments for the schools it maintains — its academies set their own admission rules, and most of those use straight-line distance from home to school rather than a catchment.

Walsall: 27 council-run primary, infant and junior schools now show their full admission rules and admission numbers for September 2027. Walsall ranks in six steps, and which ones apply depends on the school: every school starts with children in care, then siblings, then medical or social grounds, and finishes on straight-line distance. Junior schools add a step for children already at the paired infant school, and the eight voluntary controlled Church of England primaries can set aside up to a quarter of places for regular worshippers. Junior school places for the Year 3 transfer are included. From the council's determined arrangements for 2027 to 2028.

Blackpool: every one of the town's 38 state primary and secondary schools now shows its published admission number for September 2027 — how many places each school is actually offering. The 12 schools Blackpool Council admits for, including both community primaries and the nine academies that follow the council's policy, now list the full order of priority too: looked after children, then exceptional medical or social need, then siblings, then distance, with distance breaking any tie. Blackpool does not use catchment areas at all, so how close you live is what counts. Taken from the council's determined admissions policy for 2027 to 2028.

Northumberland: 66 of the county's 154 state schools now show their admission rules for September 2027, up from 2. Northumberland runs a three-tier system across much of the county, so children transfer at Year 5 to middle school and Year 9 to high school as well as the usual Reception and Year 7 — the council publishes a separate policy for each, and each school now shows the one that applies to its own point of entry rather than a single shared list. Catchment area is the second rule after looked-after children, ahead of both medical need and siblings.

County Durham: 106 of the county's 238 state schools now show their admission rules for September 2027, up from 8, and 102 show their published admission number. Durham County Council sets one order of priority for all its community and voluntary controlled schools — looked-after children, then exceptional medical need, then siblings, then distance by the shortest walking route. The council does not publish these on its admissions pages: they are agreed by Cabinet and printed in the committee papers, which is where we read them from, along with the admission number agreed for each school.

Thurrock: 10 of the borough's 52 schools now show their admission rules for September 2027, up from 3. Thurrock is unusual — it has no community or voluntary controlled schools at all, so every school sets its own admission criteria and there is no council-wide policy. The council's secondary admissions brochure for September 2027 prints each secondary school's own rules and admission number, and those are the ones now shown. The borough's primary academies publish separately and are not yet covered.

Norfolk: 94 community and voluntary controlled schools now show their published admission number for September 2027, up from 12. Norfolk County Council publishes three separate orders of priority — one for starting school in Reception, one for transferring from infant to junior school in Year 3, and one for moving to secondary school in Year 7 — and each school now shows the order that applies to its own point of entry, rather than a single shared list. Norfolk's academies set their own rules and are not covered by the council's arrangements.

Central Bedfordshire: 43 of the area's 122 state schools now show their admission rules for September 2027, up from 4, and 39 show their published admission number. Central Bedfordshire runs a three-tier system in much of the area, so children transfer at Reception, Year 5 and Year 9 as well as Year 3 and Year 7 — the council publishes each school's point of entry, and those are now shown correctly rather than guessed from the age range. Five schools have their own variation on the standard rules, including two that give priority on church attendance.

Bedford: all 13 community and voluntary controlled schools now show their admission rules and published admission numbers for September 2027. Bedford Borough Council determines one standard policy — looked-after children, then children in the catchment area with a sibling at the school, then other catchment children, then other siblings — and a separate variation for Renhold and Scott, which add a children-of-staff rule. The council also publishes the exact point it measures distance from for each school, such as a school gate or main entrance.

Essex: 340 of the county's 525 state schools now show their admission rules for September 2027, up from 136, and 441 show their published admission number. Essex prints every school's own policy in five regional directories — Mid, North-East, South and West Essex for primary schools, plus one for secondary — alongside the number of applications each school received and the criterion under which the last child was admitted. Where a school's entry gives a ranked list of rules, those rules now appear on its page.

Suffolk: 225 of the county's 298 state schools now show their admission rules for September 2027, up from 12, and every school now shows its published admission number. Suffolk County Council sets one order of priority for all its community and voluntary controlled schools — looked-after children, then siblings, then children in the catchment area nearest the school — and hosts every other school's own policy on its website, which is where the rest come from. We have also added each school's catchment: Suffolk defines these as lists of villages, parishes and streets rather than boundaries, and 230 schools now show the places they serve.

Nottinghamshire: 330 of the county's 331 state schools now show their admission rules for September 2027, and 296 have a mapped catchment area you can search by postcode. The county council publishes a designated catchment for each community and voluntary controlled school, and those boundaries are now drawn on the map rather than described in words. Four schools are served by two separate catchment areas each, and both parts are shown. The one school still missing its rules, Caunton Dean Hole, does not appear in any of the council's eight published guides.

Leicester: 100 of the city's 105 state schools now show their admission rules for September 2027, and 101 for September 2026. The city council's own criteria cover its community schools, and the determined policies of the St Thomas Aquinas Catholic Multi-Academy Trust now cover its Leicester academies — including the published admission number for each one and the parish or parishes each school serves, which decides priority under the faith criteria. Where a school sets its own rules and publishes nothing, we say so rather than showing the council's rules in their place.

Derbyshire: 241 of the county's 399 state schools now show their admission rules for September 2027, up from a handful. Derbyshire County Council sets one ranked order for all 193 of its community and voluntary controlled schools — looked-after children first, then children in the school's "normal area" with a sibling already there, then other normal-area children — and that now sits on every one of them. Alongside it, the determined policies of two Catholic multi-academy trusts add 45 more schools, each with its published admission number and the parishes it serves. Eckington and part of Long Eaton run their own variant rules, which are shown separately.

Leicestershire: the county council's seven admission rules now sit on 136 maintained school records for September 2026 and 2027 entry, and 263 admission numbers have been filled in across the county's primary schools, primary academies and secondaries from the council's own schedule. Leicestershire ranks catchment ahead of siblings, which is unusual and worth knowing. A caution: 30 admission numbers we already held disagree with the council's schedule, and 20 of those turn out to be the council's indicative number rather than the determined one.

Derby: the city council's own admission rules now sit on all 22 council-run schools for September 2025, 2026 and 2027 entry, with the admission number each year. Derby ranks looked-after children first, then children living in the school's catchment area who have a brother or sister there, then other catchment children, so where you live matters a great deal. Two admission numbers are left blank on purpose: Roe Farm and Shelton Infant are printed as "45 - proposed 30" and "70 - proposed 60", which does not state the determined figure.

Rutland: 19 of the county's 21 schools now show their admission rules for September 2027 entry, with their admission numbers, where before there were none. Rutland publishes a page for each school, and those pages also carry how the September 2026 round went: how many families put the school first, second and third, and how many places were offered on national offer day. Uppingham Community College drew 198 first preferences for 180 places; Catmose Primary drew 42 for 30. Ryhall CE Academy's page still reads "TBC" throughout.

West Northamptonshire: 164 schools now show their admission rules for September 2026 entry and 60 for September 2027, taken from the council's composite prospectuses and its determined arrangements. The bigger change is on the map: the council says its rural linked areas "refer to civil parishes and are defined by civil parish boundaries", so 33 primary schools now have an exact catchment built from the named parish boundaries, from Ashton's 5.5 square kilometres to Clipston's 54.6 across six parishes.

North Northamptonshire: 129 of the area's 132 state schools now show their admission rules for September 2027 entry, up from three. The council's newly published primary and secondary composite prospectuses print every school's criteria in full, including feeder schools and the linked villages that give priority at rural schools. The 21 council-run schools carry the council's own rules for four years back. Linked villages are recorded by name; the council does not say whether they follow parish boundaries, so no map has been drawn from them.

Nottingham: 92 of the city's 94 state schools now show their admission rules for September 2027 entry, up from two. The 26 council-run primaries carry the city's own five catchment-based rules for three years running, with their admission numbers; the rest come from each academy's determined policy as published by the council. Every city primary catchment has been checked against the council's live map service, and Stanstead Flying High Academy's catchment was added. Victoria Primary's 2026 rules were read from a scanned policy that carries no text layer.

Lincolnshire: 318 schools now show their admission rules for September 2027 entry and 315 for September 2026, taken from the county council's own directory record for each school. Almost every Lincolnshire school is covered, academies included, along with the published admission number and which body decides admissions. The rules themselves are short and consistent across the county: looked-after children first, then siblings, then straight-line distance, with a lottery where distance cannot separate the last applicants. Lincolnshire uses no catchment areas for its maintained schools.

61 of Bromley's 95 state schools now show their full ranked admission rules, including the trust-wide policies that cover several schools at once — Nexus Education Schools Trust, Mosaic and Langley Park. Several schools now carry three published years side by side, so you can see where an admission number or a criterion changed. Every Bromley school is its own admission authority, and the borough publishes no catchment areas: distance from home to school decides when a school is oversubscribed.

Greenwich pages now carry more of each school's own admission rules: 49 of the borough's 78 state schools show their full ranked criteria, and many church schools show two or three published years side by side. We have re-read Royal Greenwich's determined arrangements for September 2027 entry and can confirm the borough publishes no catchment areas at all — community schools rank looked-after children, exceptional need, siblings and then straight-line distance, and the council prints the community primary admission numbers rather than any boundary.

Lewisham pages are up to date for the round that is open now. We have re-read the council's determined arrangements for September 2027 entry and confirmed the admission limits for every community school, including the Year 3 junior places. Six primaries are shown at 30 rather than 60: the council marks these as reductions for 2027, and their recent offers back that up. 54 of Lewisham's 79 schools now show their full ranked admission rules. Lewisham publishes no catchment areas; distance decides.

Bexley schools now show their September 2027 admission numbers — 73 of them, from the council's own 2027/28 admissions booklet, which lists every primary, infant, junior and secondary school in the borough. 43 schools also show their full ranked admission rules, including the grammar schools' banding and the Trinitas and Primary First trust policies that cover several schools at once. Bexley publishes no catchment areas: distance from home to school decides who gets in when a school is oversubscribed.

Lambeth secondary pages now show how places were actually given out. For every borough secondary we have the National Offer Day breakdowns for September 2024, 2025 and 2026 entry: how many applied, how many places went to each criterion and each ability band, and how far the last child offered lived from the school. That is 72 years of per-criterion detail. We have also added the 2027 admission numbers for all 30 community schools from the council's determined policy, and confirmed Lambeth publishes no catchment maps.

Every mainstream Southwark school now has a published admission number for September 2027 entry — 87 of them, taken from the council's own determined schedules for primary and secondary, which cover academies, voluntary aided, free and foundation schools as well as community ones. 76 of Southwark's 88 schools show their full ranked admission rules. We also re-read the determined community arrangements for September 2027 and can confirm Southwark publishes no catchment areas at all: places are decided by criteria then straight-line distance.

Ealing: Alec Reed Academy and The Edward Betham Church of England Primary School now show their admission rules for September 2027 entry, which means 80 of the borough's 82 state schools carry criteria for that year. Brentside Primary Academy has also gained its rules for September 2026, the latest year it publishes. Edward Betham's order is worth reading closely: it ranks church practice in the Greenford Magna parish first, then other named parishes, before siblings.

Harrow: 11 more schools now show their admission rules for September 2027 entry. Whitmore High and Kenmore Park Junior carry the council's own determined criteria; Bentley Wood, Hatch End, Heathland, Whitefriars, Aylward, Priestmead, Hujjat, St Teresa's and St John Fisher carry their own governing bodies' determined policies, each with the admission number the document states. Bentley Wood splits its intake unusually: 20 places for Aylward Primary pupils, 60 by distance and the rest by random computer selection.

Brent: 15 more schools now show their own admission rules for September 2027 entry, including Wembley High, Kingsbury High, JFS, Harris Lowe Willesden, E-ACT Crest, North Brent, Sudbury Primary, Convent of Jesus and Mary and St Mary's CofE. Every Brent school also now carries the full offer-day picture for the 2025 and 2026 intakes: how many places went under each criterion and the furthest distance offered, for Reception, the Year 3 junior transfer and Year 7. Note North Brent School allocates three quarters of its places by distance from Wembley High, not from itself.

Hillingdon: every one of the borough's 86 state schools now shows its admission rules for September 2027 entry, taken from the council's own September 2027 brochure, which prints each school's criteria in full. That covers all 39 academy, faith and free primary schools, the junior schools, all 18 secondaries and the four 14-to-19 studio schools and university technical colleges. Alongside them sit the 50 exact distance-priority circles Hillingdon publishes as a grid point and a radius for each school, so you can see both how a school ranks applicants and how far its priority area reaches.

Croydon: the borough's three council-run junior schools now show the rules for moving up at Year 3 — after looked-after children, priority goes to children already on the roll of the linked infant school, then brothers and sisters, then serious medical need, then who lives nearest. Every Croydon community school page now also links to the council's admissions pages as the source of its rules, replacing an internal reference that was not useful to parents.

Kingston upon Thames: all 14 council-run schools now show the borough's determined admission rules for September 2027 entry, with their admission numbers. Places go first to looked-after children, then to brothers and sisters (a junior school counts a sibling at its paired infant school), then to families with an exceptional need for that particular school, then to children of staff, and finally to whoever lives nearest — measured as a straight line to the school gate, with lots drawn if two families are the same distance away. Junior schools put children from their paired infant school second.

Birmingham: every council-run school now shows the city's determined admission rules for September 2027 entry — looked-after children first, then brothers and sisters already at the school, then who lives nearest, measured in a straight line. Junior schools put children from their linked infant school second. Three schools work differently and now say so: Chilcote Primary, Hall Green Infant and Hall Green Junior each have a catchment area and place families inside it ahead of those outside. Al-Furqan Primary's faith criterion is shown in its proper place, third.

Gloucestershire: every council-run infant, primary and junior school now shows the county's own admission rules for September 2027 entry — looked-after children first, then siblings (an infant school counts a brother or sister at its companion junior), then the strongest geographical claim measured in a straight line; junior schools add priority for children already at the companion infant school. Ties are settled by supervised random allocation. For secondary places you can now see, for all 40 schools, how many places were on offer for September 2026, how many were still free in March, and how far away the last child offered a place lived.

Manchester's admission rules and place-allocation figures are now on every state school page in the city. All 45 council-run primary schools show the council's four oversubscription categories — looked-after children, exceptional medical or social need, sibling at the school, then all other children, with straight-line distance deciding within each — for September 2024 to September 2027 entry, with the admission number for each year. All 169 Manchester state schools now show how places were offered, and 53 show the cut-off distance for the last place, back to 2018. For September 2027: Reception opens 17 August 2026, closes 15 January 2027; Year 7 opens 1 July 2026, closes 31 October 2026.

Merton is now up to date for the round that is open now. Every one of the council's 27 community primaries and its three community and voluntary controlled secondaries — Raynes Park, Ricards Lodge and Rutlish — shows its full determined admission rules and its admission number for September 2027 entry, and so do the three Harris academies, from their own policies. All 43 Merton primaries have a 2027 Reception number, and the closing and offer dates for September 2027 are in. We have also drawn the admissions priority areas for Wimbledon Chase, Dundonald and Wimbledon Park, added nine years of the council's rules, and corrected 95 offer distances that were showing against the wrong year.

South Tyneside catchment areas are now drawn on School Atlas. We have digitised the council's own catchment maps, so you can see the exact boundary for all 23 community and voluntary controlled primary schools and for Hebburn Comprehensive, Mortimer Community College and Boldon School — living in the catchment is the second admission rule, after looked-after children, and ahead of siblings. We have also added the council's determined rules for September 2026 entry, the admission number for every one of the borough's 53 state schools, and that round's closing and offer dates.

Wirral pages now cover the round that is open now. For September 2027 entry, 57 schools show their full admission criteria and 55 an admission number — the council's rules for its community and church-controlled primaries, from its determined scheme, plus every secondary. Closing and offer dates are in for September 2026, 2027 and 2028 entry, and twenty secondaries have gained their September 2025 rules. Wirral publishes no catchment map: every address sits in one primary catchment zone, which outranks all out-of-zone applicants, but the council gives it out only through its street-name finder — each page now says so and links it.

Wolverhampton school pages now show how places are decided. The council's rules for its own community and church-controlled schools are here for September 2027 - the round open now - and every year back to 2019, with each school's admission number and the closing and offer dates. Academies, Catholic and Church of England schools have their own 2026 and 2025 rules, from the council's education booklets. Those booklets also show what happened: for four intake years you can see how many families put a school first, how many places were given out, and, where a school filled up, how far away the last child offered a place lived. No catchment maps here - distance decides.

Coventry schools now show the council's own admission rules for September 2026 and September 2027 entry, with each school's published admission number and the application, closing and offer dates for both rounds. Every school page also carries the council's allocation history: how many places went to each priority group, how many families applied and how far away the last child offered a place lived, going back to 2023 entry. And 77 schools now have a catchment area drawn from the road lists Coventry publishes for each school — approximate, because the council publishes streets rather than a boundary, so check your own road in the council's list.

Sutton: every state school page now shows three years of offer-day results from the council's own tables — how far the last child offered a place lived for September 2024, 2025 and 2026 entry, which schools took every applicant, and the council's note where a test, faith or banding decided places instead of distance. Admission numbers are in for all 15 secondaries and 34 primary and infant schools. The full admission rules for September 2027 entry are published for 16 schools, including Greenshaw, Glenthorne, Cheam High, Sutton Grammar and Wallington County Grammar, and Cheam High's and Glenthorne's Worcester Park priority areas are now on the map.

Leeds school pages now show catchment areas and admission rules. We have mapped the council's catchment priority areas for all 86 community and voluntary controlled primary schools, the four community secondaries (both Allerton High zones) and Victoria Junior — 98 schools, drawn from the council's own maps for September 2025, 2026 and 2027 entry. Every Leeds state school now shows its 2027-28 admission rules, admission number and application dates, plus how places were shared out by priority last year, how far the last child offered a place lived, and how many families put the school first.

South Tyneside: every school page now shows the council's own admissions record from its Information for Parents booklets - the four community rules (looked-after children, catchment, sibling, straight-line distance) for 2024/25 and 2025/26, the 20 academy and church-school policies printed beside them, admission numbers for every school, and three years of results: how many families named each school, places given under each rule, the criterion and distance of the last child offered, refusals and appeals for reception, Year 3 and Year 7 entry in 2022, 2023 and 2024. The 2024 and 2025 application dates are on the timelines.

Liverpool: the council's determined admission arrangements are now on all 49 community and voluntary-controlled school pages for September 2025, 2026 and 2027 entry — the four-step priority order for primary schools (looked-after children, exceptional medical or social need, siblings, then everyone else by straight-line distance) and the five-step order for Calderstones and Holly Lodge. Every Liverpool state school page now shows its admission number and the September 2026 allocation from the council directory: places allocated by preference, families naming the school, and the last distance admitted where the council prints one. Timelines carry the 1 September opening date for each round.

Trafford: catchment areas are now drawn on the school pages for 38 primary, infant and junior schools, built from the street lists the council publishes for each school (including the joint area shared by Kings Road, Old Trafford Community Academy and Seymour Park), plus Lostock High School's "all M32 postcodes" catchment. The pages also carry the council's admission rules for 2025, 2026 and 2027 entry, determined admission numbers for 2025–2027, and five years of National Offer Day outcomes (2022–2026) for every primary and secondary school: places allocated, the last category offered and the furthest distance in miles. Applications for September 2027 opened on 1 September 2026.

Richmond upon Thames: every state school's admission rules are now on its page. Community primary, infant and junior schools carry the council's determined criteria for 2025/26 to 2027/28 (with the paired-infant priority for junior transfer and the 2026 change putting children of staff above siblings) and each year's admission number. Academies, church and free schools and all eleven secondaries carry the criteria summaries from the council's 2026 and 2027 brochures. Also new: how places were offered at community schools in 2023-2025, the last place allocated at every school on Offer Day 2025 and 2026, application dates, and Waldegrave School's priority areas as a map.

Peterborough: the council's determined admission rules for its 16 community and church (VC) primary and infant schools are now on the school pages for every year from 2019 to 2026 entry, with each year's admission number. Every council allocation sheet from September 2020 to September 2026 has been added for Reception, junior (Year 3) and Year 7 entry: how many families named each school, how many places were offered on offer day, which rule the last place went to and how far away that child lived, plus the second-round lists of schools that were full or still had places. Timelines carry the council's opening, closing and offer dates for each year; the 2027 round opens on 11 September 2026.

Hounslow: every community school now shows the council's determined admission rules for 2025, 2026 and 2027 entry — looked-after children, exceptional medical or social need, siblings, children of staff, then walking distance (Strand-on-the-Green Junior adds its linked-infant priority). Admission numbers for 2027 come from the council's PAN schedule and its Starting School 2027 directory, academies and faith schools included. For the last three rounds you can see how each school's places were shared out by criterion, how many families applied, and the furthest walking distance offered where a school filled up. Application dates for 2025-2028 are filled in for every school.

Haringey: the council's determined arrangements for 2024/25 to 2026/27 and its September 2027 booklets are now on the school pages — community criteria for reception, junior transfer and secondary transfer, admission numbers for 70 schools, the council's offer-day reports for 2023 to 2026 with the distance of the last child offered a place, five-year cut-off tables, and three years of appeal statistics. Each academy's and church school's own policy has been added where published, so 55 of the borough's 72 schools show ranked criteria for 2027 entry. Applications opened on 1 September 2026.

Enfield: the borough's six priority zones are now on the school pages — the street-list zones that give Brettenham, Chase Side, Fleecefield, Lavender and Raynham primaries and Chace Community School priority over straight-line distance, drawn from the named roads in the council's 2026 criteria booklet (house-number limits are noted, not drawn). The pages also carry the council's community criteria from 2022/23 to 2026/27, including the 26 trust academies the council names as using them, the four community secondaries' rules for 2027 entry, junior-transfer criteria, admission numbers, six years of allocation reports, and every academy's criteria from the 2021 to 2027 secondary guides.

Barnet: every community primary school's defined area is now a map on the school pages — the London exception where a priority area, not just distance, decides who gets in. Barnet publishes 37 static street-map images; each has been georeferenced against Ordnance Survey road centrelines and is held for 41 schools (the primaries and their linked junior schools) with the council's criteria 5 and 6 quoted beside it. Alongside: the determined community criteria for 2025/26 to 2027/28, junior-transfer criteria, 2027 admission numbers, four years of secondary and two of primary allocation tables, and each academy's or church school's own determined policy where published.

Waltham Forest: how places were offered on National Offer Day is now held for the 2025 and 2026 intakes from the council's brochures and its 2026 secondary report — places allocated under each criterion, the published admission number and the cut-off distance in miles for every school — plus the three-year cut-off table (2023 to 2025) that the 2026 brochures print for primaries and secondaries. The determined community criteria for 2025/26, 2026/27 and 2027/28 are on each community school's page; the council has not published 2024/25 arrangements, so that year stays blank rather than guessed.

Newham: the council's determined admission arrangements for every September from 2022 to 2027 are now on the school pages — the community criteria (looked-after children, medical and social need, siblings, then distance) applied to reception, Year 3 and Year 7 entry, with the published admission numbers for all 87 schools in the 2027 list — together with the council's application and offer statistics for 2023 to 2026: applications, first preferences, offers and the distance of the last offer for reception, infant-to-junior transfer and secondary transfer at each school.

Havering: fifteen years of the council's admissions statistics are now on the school pages — for every infant, junior and primary school from September 2012 to September 2026 and every secondary school from 2013, the published admission number, applications and offers by criterion, and the straight-line distance of the last place offered where a school filled on distance. The determined community criteria for 2026/27 and 2027/28 (including the separate junior-school criteria) and the academies' own policies are held alongside, and the timelines carry the council's 1 September 2026 opening date for 2027 applications.

Bexley: the council's 2027/28 admissions booklet and its older PDF booklets are now on the school pages — the community and voluntary-controlled criteria for 2027/28 and 2022/23, every secondary school's own policy for 2023/24 and 2021/22 and every primary's for 2022/23 from the booklets, admission numbers for 2027 entry (70 schools) and the earlier booklet years, the five-year table of the distance at which each secondary school's last place was offered (2016 to 2026), and the number of preferences each school received for 2026. The 1 September 2026 opening of the 2027 application round is on the timelines.

Barking and Dagenham: the council's determined arrangements and annual e-booklets are now reflected on every school page — community criteria for each year from 2020/21 to 2027/28, junior-school (Year 3) criteria, the church schools' own policies the council hosts, admission numbers back to 2019/20, and the booklets' statistics pages: how many places each school gave under each criterion and the straight-line distance of the last place offered, for reception from 2019 to 2025 and Year 7 from 2022 to 2026. Applications for 2027 opened on 1 September 2026 and that date now shows on the application timelines.

Redbridge: the borough's secondary catchment areas are now maps on the school pages. The council map serves the ten catchments used by Beal, Caterham, Loxford, Mayfield, Oaks Park, Seven Kings, The Forest Academy, Valentines, Wanstead and Woodbridge, plus the 11+ Common Catchment Area that decides priority for Ilford County High and Woodford County High — all twelve drawn from the council's own boundary data. Alongside them: the determined 2027/28 secondary and selective criteria, the 2025/26 and 2026/27 primary and secondary criteria recovered from the council's scanned arrangements, Year 3 admission numbers for the three junior schools, and offer-day cut-off distances for 2025 and 2026.

Westminster: the council's 2027 primary and secondary admissions guides are now on every school page — admission numbers for all 44 schools, and how places were offered on National Offer Day 2026 (applications, siblings, last distance offered in miles, appeals; The Grey Coat Hospital by ability band) for 43 schools. The community-school arrangements for 2025/26, which the council's page no longer serves, were recovered from the document itself, so criteria and admission numbers now run from 2025/26 to 2027/28. Applications for September 2027 opened on 1 September 2026.

Wandsworth: the five priority areas that Wandsworth's community primaries use are now maps on the school pages — Beatrix Potter's first and second priority areas, and the priority areas of Furzedown, Penwortham and Sellincourt Primary Schools, from the maps in the council's 2027/28 determined arrangements. The council draws these only as pictures; Beatrix Potter's map carries a grid reference and the other three were fitted to the boundary roads the policy names, so each map is accurate to roughly fifteen metres and is marked approximate. Every other Wandsworth school allocates by distance or banding without an area.

Tower Hamlets: the six shared primary catchment areas and the two secondary priority zones have been re-checked against the council's map layer as updated in July 2026 and the 2027 prospectus — every area matches, and one error in our own records is fixed: Swanlea School had been showing Priority Zone A (Mulberry and Stepney Green's) instead of its own Zone B. Every school page now carries the council's admission numbers for 2026 and 2027 (80 schools), the community criteria for both years, the 2026 reception outcomes for the eight oversubscribed community schools and the 2025 secondary transfer summary for every secondary.

Southwark: published admission numbers for every Southwark primary and secondary school are now held for seven years, 2021/22 to 2027/28, from the council's annual PAN lists (86 schools for 2027 entry), with the community-school criteria for each of those years. The 2027/28 primary guide adds how reception places were allocated in September 2026 at the 28 community primaries — applications, places by criterion and the furthest distance offered in metres where a school was oversubscribed — and the secondary guide the number of applications each secondary received for 2026 entry.

Lewisham: admission numbers from the council's determined arrangements are now held for 2025/26, 2026/27 and 2027/28 (52 schools for 2027 entry, including the separate Year 3 entries for junior schools), with the community criteria for each year. The secondary guide for 2027 entry adds how places were offered at Deptford Green, Forest Hill and Sydenham in March 2026 — applications, sibling and medical places, the last distance offered in metres and appeal outcomes — and the admission number of every Lewisham secondary. The council's primary guide was not online when we checked.

Lambeth: the council's determined arrangements for 2026/27 and 2027/28 are now on the school pages — the community primary and secondary criteria, the secondary banding rules, and the published admission numbers for 29 community schools in each year. Lambeth publishes how offers were made only as charts, without per-school tables, so no last-distance figures are available from the council for 2026; where an academy or church school publishes its own 2027/28 policy that is held too.

Hammersmith & Fulham: the council's Starting School and Moving On Up guides for 2027 entry are now reflected on every school page — how places were offered in 2026 (applications, siblings, distance places and the last distance offered in miles, appeals) for 47 schools, the 2027 admission numbers for all 47, and 2027/28 criteria for 45 schools including the twelve community primaries and the academies, church and free schools whose policies the council links. Applications for September 2027 opened on 1 September 2026 and close on 31 October (secondary) and 15 January 2027 (primary).

Hackney: the determined admission arrangements of every academy, voluntary-aided and free school that Hackney Education publishes on its own site are now on the school pages for 2025/26, 2026/27 and 2027/28 — 54 of Hackney's 66 state schools hold ranked 2027/28 criteria — together with the community-school criteria and the council's admission numbers for the same three years (64 schools for 2027 entry). The 1 September opening of the 2027 application round is recorded where the borough's scheme states it.

Greenwich: five years of National Offer Day statistics are now on the page of every Royal Greenwich school — 60 schools with the criterion and straight-line distance of the last place offered for 2022 to 2026, alongside applications by preference and offers made, from the council's published data workbooks. The four banded academies (Harris Greenwich, Leigh Blackheath, Leigh Halley and Leigh Stationers') show offers and last distance for each ability band rather than a single figure. Community criteria and admission numbers cover 2025/26 to 2027/28, and every secondary carries the criteria printed in the council's 2026/27 booklet.

Camden: two years of secondary cut-off distances are now on every Camden secondary page from the council's Secondary Schools in Camden 2027 guide — the distance beyond which applicants were not admitted in March 2025 and March 2026, in miles, with Camden School for Girls shown per ability band — plus applications, sibling and medical offers for both years, the 2027 admission numbers for all 10 secondaries (Hampstead School falls to 180) and the community criteria for 2027 entry. Primary pages carry the last-distance figures for 2024 and 2025 from the council's Starting School guide. Camden's own 2027/28 primary arrangements had still not been published as determined when we checked.

City of London: The Aldgate School's Admissions Priority Area is now a map on the school page. The school ranks applicants inside its priority area at criteria 5 and 6, but had published the area only as a picture — the City of London's 2014 map — so we fitted that map to the official City boundary (to within a metre) and traced the shaded area: the whole City plus the Whitechapel and Tower Hill streets of Tower Hamlets and a corner of Clerkenwell in Islington, 3.76 km² in all. The school's 2025/26 and 2026/27 criteria are held; its 2027/28 arrangements were not yet published when we checked.

West Lothian: Hawkhill Primary, which opened in Winchburgh in August 2025, now has a catchment map, and Winchburgh Primary's zone is reduced to match. The council publishes the split only as a picture, so we fitted it to the previous precise boundary — the outer edge is exact and the internal line between the two schools is accurate to about 20–30 metres. Both maps are marked approximate until the national data carries the new zones.

Scottish Borders: all 64 catchment maps now come from the council's own Find It map layers, updated by the council in February and March 2026, replacing a 2021 copy; five zones had changed (Heriot, Newlands, Philiphaugh, Yarrow and St Margaret's RC). Each secondary lists its cluster primaries. One correction to our own record: Chirnside Primary's postcode had been carried from the national register as TD11 3HX, ten kilometres away — the council's TD11 3XH is right, and the school now sits inside its catchment.

Shetland: every one of the 27 school pages now carries the council's own description of its catchment — Bell's Brae is "Lerwick east of the Ayre of Clickimin and including Frakkafield", Sound is Lerwick west of it with Gulberwick and Brindister — and the maps have been corrected: our copy of the national data had cut most zones to a single island or fragment. Anderson High and Brae High now show their S1 catchments as the council defines them, by feeder primary, with the wider S5–S6 transfer areas explained in the notes.

East Dunbartonshire: placing-request outcomes are now on 40 school pages for 2025/26 and 2026/27 — the share of requests accepted at each stage from the council's allocation statistics, published as percentages (for 2026/27, 84% of P1 requests and 57% of S1 requests were accepted across the council). Lenzie Academy's catchment map, which had shown only the Auchinloch corner of its zone, now shows the full East Dunbartonshire area plus the North Lanarkshire streets that feed it.

Angus: each of the 59 school pages now shows the reserved spaces the council holds back for families moving into the catchment, alongside the school's stated capacity and its roll at the last four censuses, from the council's school roll projections. Capacities agree with the national school estate figures at every school except Mattocks Primary (100 on the national figure, 75 on the council's), which we have flagged rather than changed.

Perth & Kinross: reserved places are now on all 76 school pages for three sessions — 2024/25, 2025/26 and 2026/27 — with the number held back at each stage (P1–P7 and S1–S6) for families moving into a catchment, from the council's Reserved Places in Schools reports. The 2026/27 report also gives last year's placing-request outcomes: 294 P1 requests, 210 granted and 84 refused; 124 S1 requests, 120 granted; 93.5% of P1 and 99.7% of S1 entrants were placed in their first-choice school.

North Lanarkshire: every secondary page now lists its associated primaries from the council's catchment data, and the six zones with an alternate secondary — Auchinloch (Lenzie Academy or Chryston High), Ravenswood's two halves (Cumbernauld Academy or Greenfaulds High), Alexander Peden's shared campus, and St John the Baptist (Cardinal Newman or Holy Cross, Hamilton) — are recorded on both schools. The council's proposal to change its placing-request policy closed to consultation on 21 August; the final decision is due on 17 November 2026 and the priority order will be updated if it is adopted.

City of Edinburgh: catchment maps for 11 schools rebuilt from the council's own map service to capture its special cases. Canaan Lane Primary's zone is for P1–P4 only — older children in the same streets belong to Bruntsfield, James Gillespie's or South Morningside, and each page now says so. The "properties in this area" pockets for Castleview, Craigour Park, Pirniehall, Holy Cross RC, Castlebrae, Liberton High and St Thomas of Aquin's are included, Liberton High's full catchment is restored, and the Leith school formerly St Mary's is listed under its new name, Star of the Sea RC Primary.

South Lanarkshire: all 142 catchment maps now come straight from the council's own map service rather than the national copy, which had every secondary catchment wrong (Lesmahagow High was showing 0.4 km² of its 126). Six zones are shared between two schools — Bent and Blackwood, Cathkin and Spittal, Lanark and Robert Owen Memorial, Cairns and West Coats, and two St Peter's pairings — and now appear on both. Each secondary page lists its associated primaries, and Uddingston Grammar and Carluke High include the North Lanarkshire streets that feed them.

Scotland: catchment maps corrected for 227 schools across 24 councils. A fault in the way we had copied the national Spatial Hub data meant some catchments showed only one piece of a multi-part area — Biggar High School appeared as 86 km² of its 761, Lenzie Academy as the Auchinloch corner of its zone, Liberton High as a single pocket. Every affected map now shows the full published area, and each of Scotland's 2,278 catchment polygons has been checked against its source.

Glasgow: 167 catchment maps rebuilt from the council's own zone data, so shared zones — streets that belong to two schools — now show on both school pages instead of only one. Four Gaelic-medium catchments are mapped separately. Reserved places are now on 87 primary school pages for 2025/26 and 2026/27: the number of P1–P7 places each school holds back for families moving into the catchment, taken from the council's committee papers, with the stage-by-stage split the council applies.

Scotland: every council's placing-request priority order is now on every state school page — 2,304 primary and secondary schools across all 32 councils. Scotland has no per-school admission policy: each council publishes one ranked order for deciding placing requests when a school is full, and that order now sits under Admissions for every school it governs, alongside the statutory grounds on which a request can be refused, the 15 March and 30 April deadlines, and how to appeal to the council's Education Appeal Committee and then the Sheriff.

Renfrewshire: sixteen years of placing-request statistics are now on every one of its 61 school pages — requests received, granted, withdrawn and refused for each session from 2010/11 to 2025/26, from the council's published tables. Secondary pages list their associated primaries from the council's catchment layer. Thistle Primary, the new Dargavel school opening in August 2027, already has a published zone and will be added when its school code is issued.

Highland: 32 Gaelic-medium catchments are now mapped separately from the English-medium zones, from the council's own map service — a Gaelic unit's catchment often covers a much wider area than the school's ordinary zone, and the two now appear side by side on the school page. Every secondary lists the primaries in its Associated School Group, derived from the council's catchment layers, and 23 catchment maps that our copy of the national data had cut short have been restored to the full published area.

Wales: admission criteria are now live for 1,328 of the 1,402 state primary and secondary schools, up from 143 at the start of the week. Every one of the 22 Welsh councils has been worked through individually and every community and voluntary-controlled school in the country now shows the rules its admission authority actually determined — not a generic summary. The differences between councils are real and worth checking: Powys and Pembrokeshire rank a brother or sister inside the catchment area ABOVE simply living in it; Bridgend nests the sibling test inside each catchment band; Ceredigion, Denbighshire, Flintshire and Wrexham have no catchment areas at all and allocate by nearest suitable school; and in Torfaen every address sits in two catchments, one English-medium and one Welsh-medium. We also removed criteria that were showing on 27 church and foundation schools where they never applied.

Vale of Glamorgan, Conwy and Denbighshire: admission criteria are now live across all three, where before we held none. Each ranks places differently and the differences matter. The Vale breaks ties between families in the same catchment by the age of the YOUNGEST brother or sister already at the school. Conwy gives real weight to partner schools — a sibling at a partner infant or junior school counts, and simply attending the partner school is a criterion of its own. Denbighshire has no catchment areas at all: it allocates by nearest suitable school, and for a family wanting Welsh-medium education that means the nearest Welsh-medium school. All ten of the Vale's church schools now have their own published rules recorded.

Newport: admission criteria are now live for 53 of its 54 schools. Newport ranks catchment above siblings and applies the same seven criteria to primary and secondary alike. One thing worth knowing if you are choosing a secondary school: Newport gives NO priority for the primary school your child attends, and says so in terms — a cluster primary counts for nothing. Its six Roman Catholic primaries share a single admissions policy, now recorded for each of them, and Malpas Church in Wales Primary has an extra faith priority applied within each category, where practising means attending at least monthly for six months.

Bridgend: admission criteria are now live for its community and voluntary-controlled schools for September 2027, and every school's catchment area map is now linked directly from its page — 47 maps in all. Two things set Bridgend apart. First, its Welsh-medium schools have no catchment areas at all, so they are ranked on brother-or-sister and distance alone; the English-medium schools rank catchment first. Second, the sibling test sits INSIDE each catchment band rather than above it, so having an older child at the school helps you against other families in the same band, not against families who live in catchment when you do not.

Pembrokeshire: admission criteria are now live for 58 of its 61 schools. Pembrokeshire has one of the most finely graded systems in Wales — nine ranked criteria that step through catchment and feeder school together: in the catchment with a brother or sister, then in the catchment having attended a feeder school, then simply in the catchment, and the same three again for families outside it. There is also a tie-break worth knowing: where two families both have a sibling at the school, the place goes to the one whose sibling is CLOSEST IN AGE to the applicant. And in an all-through school, a sibling in the other phase does not count at all. Six of the eight church schools set their own rules and are now recorded as published.

Neath Port Talbot: admission criteria are now live for its 55 community schools for September 2027, and for five of its Catholic schools from their own governing bodies. Worth knowing how NPT orders secondary places: attending a partner primary school AND living in the catchment area comes first, then living in the catchment without a partner primary, and only then having a brother or sister at the school — so a sibling ranks below catchment here. Also added for 64 schools: how many families applied for September 2024, how many got a place, and how many appealed. And one thing that differs from most of Wales — where twins or triplets cannot all be offered a place, NPT asks parents to choose rather than admitting them all.

Powys: admission criteria are now live for 72 schools and admission numbers for 79, where before we held none. Powys orders its criteria differently from most of Wales and it is worth knowing: an older brother or sister already at the school, with your household inside the catchment area, ranks ABOVE simply living in the catchment area. A sibling who is only in the sixth form does not count. We have also recorded which primary schools feed each secondary, for both English-medium and Welsh-medium catchments, alongside the catchment boundaries we already held.

Caerphilly: admission criteria are now live for its 77 community schools, and admission numbers for 79 schools. Caerphilly puts catchment second, above siblings — and within the catchment it admits children who already have a brother or sister at the school before those who do not, which is a real distinction worth knowing when you are weighing a preference. Two things to be aware of: living in a catchment area gives no automatic right to a place, and a place at a separate infant school carries no automatic right to the junior school that serves the same area — you have to apply again.

Swansea: admission criteria and admission numbers are now live for all 91 primary and secondary schools for September 2027, where before we held none. Swansea ranks catchment second, above siblings — so a child living in a school's catchment area comes before a child with a brother or sister there who lives outside it. Secondary places carry an extra rung the primary list does not have: children attending a designated partner primary school rank fourth, though the council is explicit that this guarantees nothing. All six church schools — Christchurch, four Catholic primaries and Bishop Vaughan — set their own rules, and each is now recorded as published, including the parishes they serve.

Gwynedd: admission criteria are now live for all 93 primary and secondary schools, where before we held none. Gwynedd runs a catchment system and it matters: living in a school's catchment area ranks above having a brother or sister there, and for secondary places, already attending a primary inside that secondary's catchment is a ranked criterion in its own right. We have also recorded which schools sit in each of the ten secondary catchment areas. Its two Catholic schools, Ysgol Ein Harglwyddes and Ysgol Santes Helen, set their own rules and share one published list of eight. Newly added too: admission numbers for 52 schools, application numbers for 75, and appeal outcomes for 44 — the first appeals data we hold anywhere in Wales.

Rhondda Cynon Taf: admission criteria are now live for all 106 primary and secondary schools for September 2027 entry, where before we held none. RCT ranks by catchment first: a child living in a school's catchment area with an older sibling there comes above a child in catchment without one, and both come above anyone living outside it. The seven church schools set their own rules through their governing bodies, and each is now recorded as printed. Also added: the admission number and the number of written applications for 96 schools, and the list of associated primary schools for 16 secondary schools — though RCT warns that attending one gives no entitlement to a place.

Flintshire and Wrexham: a correction, and new data. Both counties allocate places by "nearest suitable school" — neither operates catchment areas at all, so living in a particular street gives no priority here. We have removed admission criteria that were wrongly showing on 26 church and foundation schools across the two counties: those schools set their own rules through their governing bodies, not the council, and the council's criteria never applied to them. Correct policies are now in place for St John the Baptist, St Mary's Flint, All Saints Gresford, Madras and St Mary's Catholic Wrexham. Newly added for Flintshire: the planned admission number for 74 schools, plus how many families put each school first and how many listed it at all for September 2025 entry.

Carmarthenshire: admission criteria are now live for all 108 primary and secondary schools, for both the 2026/27 and 2027/28 rounds. For the 102 community and voluntary-controlled schools these are the county's own five ranked criteria, where living in the catchment area outranks having a sibling at a school outside it. The six church schools — Model, Penboyr, Pentip, both St Mary's Catholic primaries and St John Lloyd — set their own rules through their governing bodies, and each is now recorded as printed, including the named parishes and deaneries they serve. Also added: the admission number for 105 schools and the number of applications each received. One thing to watch: Carmarthenshire has redrawn its catchment areas for children starting from September 2027.

Cardiff: determined admission criteria are now live for all 117 maintained primary and secondary schools, for both the 2026/27 and 2027/28 rounds. For community and voluntary-controlled schools these are the Council's own ordered criteria, where a catchment place ranks above a sibling place out of catchment. For all 27 church and foundation schools — the Catholic and Church in Wales schools and Whitchurch High — the governing body sets its own rules, and each school's full policy is now recorded as printed, including baptism and worship requirements and the named parishes each school serves. Also added: the published admission number for 116 schools, and for the 14 schools that filled up last September, how far from the school the last place was offered — from 0.296 miles at St Mellons to 4.625 miles at Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf.

Mid Ulster: admission criteria for September 2026, from the Education Authority. Admissions in Northern Ireland are run by the Education Authority for the whole province, not by the council, so every school here publishes its criteria through one EA library. We now hold the ranked criteria for 99 of 120 schools in Mid Ulster, together with each school's admissions number, and the application dates for the P1 and Year 8 rounds. For 1 selective school we also hold the entrance-assessment score the last place went to. Criteria for the following September are published each December, so these are the current rules.

Mid and East Antrim: admission criteria for September 2026, from the Education Authority. Admissions in Northern Ireland are run by the Education Authority for the whole province, not by the council, so every school here publishes its criteria through one EA library. We now hold the ranked criteria for 59 of 70 schools in Mid and East Antrim, together with each school's admissions number, and the application dates for the P1 and Year 8 rounds. Criteria for the following September are published each December, so these are the current rules.

Lisburn and Castlereagh: admission criteria for September 2026, from the Education Authority. Admissions in Northern Ireland are run by the Education Authority for the whole province, not by the council, so every school here publishes its criteria through one EA library. We now hold the ranked criteria for 44 of 49 schools in Lisburn and Castlereagh, together with each school's admissions number, and the application dates for the P1 and Year 8 rounds. For 2 selective schools we also hold the entrance-assessment score the last place went to. Criteria for the following September are published each December, so these are the current rules.

Fermanagh and Omagh: admission criteria for September 2026, from the Education Authority. Admissions in Northern Ireland are run by the Education Authority for the whole province, not by the council, so every school here publishes its criteria through one EA library. We now hold the ranked criteria for 81 of 98 schools in Fermanagh and Omagh, together with each school's admissions number, and the application dates for the P1 and Year 8 rounds. Criteria for the following September are published each December, so these are the current rules.

Derry City and Strabane: admission criteria for September 2026, from the Education Authority. Admissions in Northern Ireland are run by the Education Authority for the whole province, not by the council, so every school here publishes its criteria through one EA library. We now hold the ranked criteria for 72 of 81 schools in Derry City and Strabane, together with each school's admissions number, and the application dates for the P1 and Year 8 rounds. Criteria for the following September are published each December, so these are the current rules.

Causeway Coast and Glens: admission criteria for September 2026, from the Education Authority. Admissions in Northern Ireland are run by the Education Authority for the whole province, not by the council, so every school here publishes its criteria through one EA library. We now hold the ranked criteria for 84 of 98 schools in Causeway Coast and Glens, together with each school's admissions number, and the application dates for the P1 and Year 8 rounds. For 1 selective school we also hold the entrance-assessment score the last place went to. Criteria for the following September are published each December, so these are the current rules.

Belfast: admission criteria for September 2026, from the Education Authority. Admissions in Northern Ireland are run by the Education Authority for the whole province, not by the council, so every school here publishes its criteria through one EA library. We now hold the ranked criteria for 118 of 144 schools in Belfast, together with each school's admissions number, and the application dates for the P1 and Year 8 rounds. For 6 selective schools we also hold the entrance-assessment score the last place went to. Criteria for the following September are published each December, so these are the current rules.

Armagh City Banbridge and Craigavon: admission criteria for September 2026, from the Education Authority. Admissions in Northern Ireland are run by the Education Authority for the whole province, not by the council, so every school here publishes its criteria through one EA library. We now hold the ranked criteria for 99 of 115 schools in Armagh City Banbridge and Craigavon, together with each school's admissions number, and the application dates for the P1 and Year 8 rounds. For 1 selective school we also hold the entrance-assessment score the last place went to. Criteria for the following September are published each December, so these are the current rules.

Ards and North Down: admission criteria for September 2026, from the Education Authority. Admissions in Northern Ireland are run by the Education Authority for the whole province, not by the council, so every school here publishes its criteria through one EA library. We now hold the ranked criteria for 55 of 59 schools in Ards and North Down, together with each school's admissions number, and the application dates for the P1 and Year 8 rounds. For 3 selective schools we also hold the entrance-assessment score the last place went to. Criteria for the following September are published each December, so these are the current rules.

Antrim and Newtownabbey: admission criteria for September 2026, from the Education Authority. Admissions in Northern Ireland are run by the Education Authority for the whole province, not by the council, so every school here publishes its criteria through one EA library. We now hold the ranked criteria for 54 of 62 schools in Antrim and Newtownabbey, together with each school's admissions number, and the application dates for the P1 and Year 8 rounds. Criteria for the following September are published each December, so these are the current rules.

Newry Mourne and Down: admission criteria for September 2026, from the Education Authority. Admissions in Northern Ireland are run by the Education Authority for the whole province, not by the council, so every school here publishes its criteria through one EA library. We now hold the ranked criteria for 109 of 129 schools in Newry Mourne and Down, together with each school's admissions number, and the application dates for the P1 and Year 8 rounds. For 1 selective school we also hold the entrance-assessment score the last place went to. Criteria for the following September are published each December, so these are the current rules.

Staffordshire: admission rules for three years ahead, including September 2028. Staffordshire County Council publishes the determined admission arrangements for the schools it admits to unusually early — the September 2028 rules were already published. We now hold the county's rules for the 2026/27, 2027/28 and 2028/29 rounds, 181 records in total, so you can see both the round you are applying for and the one after it, and whether anything has changed between them.

Essex: the county's determined admission rules for September 2027. Essex County Council determines the arrangements for the infant, junior and primary schools it is the admission authority for, and publishes them in full each year. We now hold those rules for 115 Essex schools for the September 2027 round. Most Essex schools are academies or voluntary-aided schools that set their own arrangements, so a council document reaches only part of the county by design; those schools are sourced individually and that work continues.

Surrey: how every school filled its places for three years running, with the distance of the last child offered. Surrey publishes, for each school and each September round, how many places went to each of that school's own criteria, how many went to children with an EHCP, and how far away the last child offered lived. We now hold 1,120 of those records covering September 2024, 2025 and 2026, including 553 last-distance figures — and, where Surrey states every on-time applicant was offered a place, we say so rather than leaving a blank. Surrey publishes distances in kilometres; we convert and record the original unit.

Norfolk: the county's determined admission rules for September 2027. Norfolk County Council sets the admission arrangements for the community and voluntary-controlled schools it admits to, and publishes them in full for each year. We now hold those rules for 95 Norfolk schools for September 2027 — a year that had none — bringing the total with admission rules to 144. Most Norfolk schools are academies that set their own arrangements, so the council's document reaches a minority by design; those schools are sourced separately and that work continues.

Hampshire: current admission rules for 279 schools, up from 25. The county council determines the admission arrangements for its community and voluntary-controlled infant, primary, junior, secondary and all-through schools, and publishes an admission number for every school it coordinates. We now hold the September 2027 rules for 279 Hampshire schools — the round families are applying for now — where before only 25 were current, and an admission number for 424. Where the council's own figure differed from ours we checked and took theirs; on 277 schools the two already agreed exactly.

Kent: every school's admission rules for three years, plus how each one filled its places and how far away the last child offered lived. Kent publishes a determined policy for every school for each of three years, and its annual guides report the previous round school by school. We now hold admission rules for 547 of Kent's 614 schools across 2025/26, 2026/27 and 2027/28, admission numbers for 565, and — for the first time in Kent — the last distance offered at 457 schools, alongside the applications received and places offered. Application windows carry Kent's own dates, including the 2 November closing date for secondary.

Flintshire: admission rules for every school and the full timetable for September 2027 entry. The county council publishes determined admission arrangements covering all of its schools, and a timetable for each round. We now hold the admission rules for all 75 Flintshire schools for both 2026/27 and 2027/28 — a year that had no data at all — and, for the first time, the application windows: secondary applications open 1 September and close 31 October 2026 with offers on 1 March 2027, and Reception forms are available from 21 September 2026, closing 15 January 2027 with offers on 16 April 2027.

Bury: how every council school filled its places last September, and the admission rules for 52 schools. The council publishes, for each of its own primary and secondary schools, how many places went to looked-after children, to siblings and on distance — and the furthest distance it offered a place from, in miles. We now hold that breakdown for twenty schools for the September 2026 round, including seventeen cut-off distances, with admission numbers for 46 schools and the determined admission rules for 52. Where a school offered every applicant a place we say so, rather than showing a distance that would mislead.

Leicestershire: determined admission numbers for almost every school, and the county's own admission rules for 2026 and 2027 entry. The county council publishes the number of places each school plans to offer — its published admission number — for infant, junior, primary and secondary schools, and separately for sixth forms. We now hold an admission number for 274 of the county's 286 schools, up from 68, including eighteen sixth-form intakes, alongside the county's determined oversubscription criteria for both the 2026/27 and 2027/28 rounds. That lets you see how many places a school offers before you rank your preferences.

Leicester: every secondary and primary school's admission rules and how many places it offers, for three years. The council publishes the determined criteria for each school in the city — the exact order it uses when more families apply than there are places, from looked-after children through siblings and distance — together with each school's published admission number. We now hold those rules and numbers for 103 of the city's 118 schools across 2025/26, 2026/27 and 2027/28, up from nine schools with rules and none with an admission number. You can see how a school's rules have changed year on year, and how many places it expects to offer for September 2027.

Gateshead: how every school filled its places, plus admission numbers and verified 2027 dates. The council publishes each school's admission number, how many families named it first, how many places went under each admission rule, how far away the last place was offered and how many appeals were heard. All of it is now on School Atlas for the 2025 and 2026 intakes, alongside admission rules for 75 schools across three years. Every school also shows the September 2027 timetable: applications open on 7 September 2026.

Waltham Forest: how every school actually filled its places, plus term dates and open evenings. The council publishes how many places each school gave under each admission rule and the cut-off distance where it filled, and we have read those reports for reception and secondary. 66 schools now show their admission number, up from none, across 2025 to 2027 entry. Term dates are in for 2026/27 and 2027/28, all 16 secondary open evenings are listed with times, and every school carries its 2027 closing date and offer day.

Oxfordshire: fifteen years of real admission rules, school by school. The council publishes, for every school and every year back to 2012/13, the rules it used in priority order and how many places went under each one — we have now read all of it. 284 schools have their admission rules and admission number, and 196 have the distance the last place was offered at, for the years they were full. Every school also shows verified 2027 application dates: Year 7 opens 11 September 2026, Reception and Year 3 open 3 November 2026.

South Gloucestershire: every academy and church school now shows its own admission rules, and what really happened to last year's applications. The council prints those policies only inside two large composite guides, so we read both — 88 of 112 schools now have their September 2026 entry criteria and admission number. The guides also give appeal outcomes for the first time: 55 schools for September 2024 entry, with Winterbourne Academy hearing 25 appeals and upholding 5, and Abbeywood 36 and 4. Every school page now explains the council's Area of Prime Responsibility and links its maps.

Hartlepool: every school’s own admission rules for two years, and how last year’s places were actually given out. Hartlepool Borough Council publishes each school’s determined admission policy on its consultations page, and all 29 have now been read in the schools’ own words for September 2026 and September 2027 entry — 16 schools already carry their 2027 rules and admission number. The council’s allocation reports add, for every primary and secondary school, how many families applied, how many places were given, and how many of those went to children with a sibling, living in the school’s admission zone, or living nearest — with the furthest distance offered where the school filled up. Application dates for September 2027 are on every school: Reception opens 2 November 2026 and Year 7 on 1 September 2026. Hartlepool defines catchments as admission zones described street by street, so there is no boundary to draw on the map.

Stoke-on-Trent: catchment areas on the map for 49 primary schools, and last year’s real allocation numbers. Stoke-on-Trent City Council publishes its primary school catchment areas on its public mapping service, and those 45 boundaries — with the shared areas shown for each infant and junior school that serves them — are now drawn on School Atlas. Living in the catchment is the council’s main admission priority after looked-after children, so the map answers the question parents ask first. Alongside it, the council’s September 2026 allocation table gives every primary school its admission number, how many families put it first, how many places were offered, the criterion that decided the last place and how far away that child lived — on 66 schools. Application dates for September 2027 are on every school: Reception opens 2 November 2026 and Year 7 on 1 September 2026.

Brighton & Hove: how places were actually allocated last year, for every school. The council’s new admissions guides for September 2027 entry have been read in full, so each school now shows its published admission number for 2027, and — for September 2026 entry — how many places went to each admission priority, how far the furthest offer reached, and, for secondary schools, how many families named it first, second, third or fourth. The council’s admission priorities for community schools are held for four years (2024 to 2027 entry), alongside faith and academy schools’ own policies where published. The six secondary catchment areas, redrawn for 2026, now list their postcodes on each school’s page. Key dates for 2027: apply by 31 October 2026 for Year 7 and 15 January 2027 for Reception; offers on 1 March and 16 April 2027.

Wrexham: admission numbers, first-preference demand and every school’s rules for three years. Wrexham County Borough Council’s Parents’ Guides for 2025, 2026 and 2027 entry have been read in full — so all 67 state schools now carry their admission number for each of those years, the number of first-preference applications they received for 2024, 2025 and 2026 entry, and their oversubscription criteria: the council’s own rules for community and voluntary controlled schools, and each faith and foundation school’s own policy, including the Church in Wales common policy for its nine primaries. Alongside them: application windows for September 2027 (Reception forms from 21 September 2026, closing 15 January 2027; Year 7 from 1 September, closing 31 October 2026) and the nine secondary open evenings this September.

North East Lincolnshire: admission numbers for four years and each school’s own rules for three. The council’s admission policy and every academy’s policy for 2025, 2026 and 2027 entry have been read in the schools’ own words — so 36 of 63 state schools carry their September 2027 oversubscription criteria, with 2025 and 2026 rules on 44 and 43 schools, including the Enquire Learning Trust’s shared policy for its eight academies. Alongside them: published admission numbers for September 2024 to 2027 (57, 59, 59 and 57 schools), opening dates of 7 November 2026 for Reception and 1 September 2026 for Year 7, the council’s street-by-street catchment list on each school’s page, and term dates for 2026-27 and 2027-28.

North Lincolnshire: admission rules and numbers for every state school, three years deep. The council’s determined arrangements for community and voluntary controlled schools, each academy’s own policy for 2025, 2026 and 2027 entry, and the council’s 2027 schools guide have all been read — so 76 of 80 schools now carry their September 2027 oversubscription criteria, with 2025 and 2026 rules on 46 schools each. Alongside them: published admission numbers for September 2027 (75 schools), 2026 (76) and 2025 (55), and term dates for 2026-27 and 2027-28. The council’s catchment maps are scanned images only, so boundaries are not shown; each school’s page says whether catchment carries priority.

Cornwall: designated areas mapped for 261 of 267 state schools. Cornwall Council publishes every school’s designated area on its interactive map, and those boundaries — 200 primary and 29 secondary areas, with the shared town areas shown for each school they serve — are now on School Atlas. A designated area sets home-to-school transport entitlement, and many Cornwall schools also give admission priority to children living in theirs; each school’s page says which. Alongside the maps: published admission numbers for September 2026 and 2027 on 265 schools, September 2027 oversubscription criteria on every school (the full arrangements in the schools’ own words for 85, the council’s ordered summary for the rest), 2026 rules on 81 schools and 2025 on 63, the 1 September 2026 opening date on every application window, and term dates for 2026-27 and 2027-28.

Wandsworth: seven years of admission rules, and this year’s numbers, for every state school. The council publishes each school’s determined admission arrangements for every year since 2021, and they have now all been read in the schools’ own words — so a school’s rules can be compared year on year, from the 2021 entry to the September 2027 entry (55 schools carry their 2027 rules so far, with the council’s rules for its community primaries in every year). Alongside them: published admission numbers for September 2027 on 65 schools from the council’s Choose a Wandsworth Primary School booklet and the policies themselves, how places were allocated from 2022 to 2026 (applications, offers and the furthest distance offered, for Reception and Year 7), the 1 September 2026 opening date on every Reception and Year 7 application window, and 35 secondary open days and evenings for September 2027 entry.

Bromley: admission numbers, offer data and open dates for every state school. The council’s 2027/28 admissions booklets give, school by school, the published admission number for September 2027, how many applied and how many places were offered in 2026, the furthest distance offered for the last three years and last year’s appeal outcomes — now on all 95 Bromley state schools, with the 1 September 2026 opening date on every application window. Every Bromley school sets its own rules: 40 schools carry their determined September 2027 arrangements in their own words and 37 their 2026 arrangements, read from the policies the schools publish. Bromley uses distance, banding or test score rather than catchment areas, so no catchment map is shown. Community-school term dates for 2027-28 are in too.