Improved school waiting list process being considered
10 February 2026
North Northamptonshire Council’s Executive is set to consider the admission arrangements for its schools, including the criteria used to determine which children get places at local schools.
The council, as the admission authority for community and voluntary controlled schools, will consider the admission arrangements for the 2027-28 academic year when it meets on 17 February 2026.
School admission arrangements are used to determine which children get places. The oversubscription criteria set for schools by the council may include: siblings at the school, staff children, distance from the school, catchment areas (sometimes known as 'linked areas'), feeder schools and selection by aptitude and banding.
An improvement to the way waiting lists for school places are managed has been proposed as a change to the admission arrangements for community and voluntary controlled schools.
When changes are proposed to admission arrangements, like all admission authorities, the council must consult on their schools’ arrangements for admissions in the following school year.
Consultation on changes to North Northamptonshire Council’s school admission arrangements took place from 10 November 2025 to 31 December 2025. Feedback from the consultation will be taken into account and the 2027-28 arrangements will be determined and published by 28 February 2026.
The council has made improvements to the school admissions process for parents and carers and has introduced an online Parent Portal. The portal has helped to transform the way families interact with education services allowing one account for Early Years, Free School Meals, and Education, Health and Care Plan (ECHP) assessment requests, in addition to school admission applications.
The parent portal also allows parent and carers to view children’s waiting list position throughout the academic year. If parents are refused a place at a school, their child will be added to the waiting list automatically. Previously, waiting lists were cleared at the end of a term and opened at the start of the next term. Parents had to remember to ask to go back on to a waiting list and could potentially miss being considered if a place became available.
Waiting lists are ranked in line with the school’s oversubscription criteria and will be kept until the end of the summer term. A child’s position on a waiting list ranking can go up or down, as children are added to or removed from the list.
No other changes to North Northamptonshire Council’s admissions arrangements were proposed for 2027-28.
If formally agreed by the council’s Executive Board, the admission arrangements will come into force from September 2027 for the 2027-2028 academic year.