Secondary school admissions

We aim to make sure that you have the best chance of securing a place at the school of your choice. For admissions in September 2026, we were only able to offer 82% of children their first preference. Due to the high number of applicants, many schools received more applications than there are places available.

For entry in 2027 we are expecting a higher number of applicants and although some schools have expanded to help meet demand, we are aware that there will be a lot of competition for places again this year.

Each school has developed a set of criteria (see admission policies for entry to Secondary school in 2027 to 2028) which will help to determine how the available places are allocated. These arrangements must be fair and unbiased, and follow the requirements of the Government's School Admissions Code.

If you are a Coventry resident but your child is attending a school outside of the city (or a private school), you will still need to complete a Coventry application.

Applying for a place starting 2027

Children born between 1 September 2015 and 31 August 2016.

The application process to apply on time starts on 1 September 2026 and closes on 31 October 2026.  All applications received after this date will not be considered until after the national offer date of 1 March 2027.

Late applications will be considered in the second allocation round in April 2027.

Access the Coventry Education Services Portal 

Please note:

• For September 2027 a number of schools have consulted and agreed on changes to their admissions criteria. Therefore please look at the admissions policy for each school.
• If you are a Coventry resident but want to apply for schools in other Local Authorities e.g. Warwickshire or Solihull, you only have to complete a Coventry application form and indicate the school you want on this form.
• Coventry City does not have any Grammar schools in its area. To apply for a Grammar school, you will need to include the school within your Coventry application in order for them to be considered. However, you must ensure that you have already registered to sit the 11+ test with the Local Authority in which the Grammar school is situated as the deadline date to register is usually at the end of June the year before your child starts secondary school. Coventry School Admissions do not administer the 11+ test.

Online applications (open 1 September to 31 October)

• Guide on how to apply for a school place
• Download booklets
• Supplementary forms

We recommend parents apply online as:

• it is quick, easy to use and secure
• you receive an email confirmation once you submit your application
• there is no risk of your application getting lost in the post
• you can check and change your application up to the closing date. However, please make sure that you resubmit if you view or change it
• it saves time
• you will receive an email on the relevant offer day confirming the school allocated 
• you can log into your account on offer day to find out the result

If users have not received any emails, please ensure you check your junk mail folder as the email could be in there. Your junk folder could be called 'junk', 'trash' or 'spam'.

If you use mail programs like Outlook to download your emails from providers such as Sky, Virgin Media or NTL World then such mail programs may not download emails in your junk folder. In such cases you will need to do the following:

1. Open your web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Chrome, Firefox or Safari) and navigate to the website of your email provider e.g. www.sky.com
2. Log into your email account
3. Search for the email in your junk, trash or spam folders.

Once the email has been found, open the email and mark it as 'not spam' so that in future the emails come into your inbox.

Please ensure you make a note of your log-in details, as if for any reason you do not receive your offer email, you will be able to access your account.