Checks all 20,036 state schools in England
You could be allocated a school you never picked.
We check your school application choices against every state school in England and tell you whether you could end up with none of them.
Secondary closes 31 October
- See your risk in three minutes
- Ten plain questions, no jargon
- No card, no account, no login
Make too few choices and you get none of them. What arrives instead is an allocation: whichever school still has a space.
That means a different journey every morning, a different playground, and a September where your child starts without the friends they expected.
- Worried your choices are too few? We count them against what your council allows, and tell you what an empty one costs.
- Not sure you would get any of them? We measure the real distance from your postcode to the school you want.
- Worried you have missed a form? We check whether your school wants one of its own, and when it closes.
Five things parents believe that are wrong
Councils publish these every year. Parents still get them wrong, and it costs them places.
The school never sees how many schools you named. Naming only one school just removes your backup choices.
Your first-choice school never sees the other schools you chose. Adding more schools cannot weaken your first choice.
Putting the easiest school first can give away a place at the school you wanted most. Putting the easiest school first gains you nothing.
Each school decides on its own, without looking at the other schools you chose. Unlikely schools lower down do not protect your first choice.
Naming the same school more than once does not help. A school named three times is treated as a school named once.
How the council uses your choices. Every school you name judges your child on its own admission rules. No school can see where you ranked it, or which other schools you chose. The order of your choices only matters when more than one school can offer your child a place, and then your child is offered the school you ranked highest.
What March looks like if this goes wrong
An email arrives naming a school you have never visited, in a part of town you do not know, where your child knows nobody.
You cannot change it. Your application closed in October. What is left is a waiting list you do not control and an appeal that one in five wins.
Your application takes about twenty minutes to fill in. What it decides lasts every school day until your child leaves that school.
The same journey every morning. The same playground. The same children at the birthday parties, or not.
Spend the twenty minutes properly and you keep the choice. Rush them and the choice gets made for you.
And if it goes right
The same email arrives, naming a school you chose.
You already knew it was likely, because you had seen how far you live from it and what the school took last year. There is nothing to appeal and nothing to wait for. You tell your child over breakfast.
Free. No card, no account.
The numbers behind it
None of this is secret. Almost nobody looks it up.
Work out your real distance to each school, and check it against what the school actually took last year. It is the most useful hour you will spend on this, and we show you where the numbers are.
What is free, and what is not
Two different jobs. Only one of them costs anything.
Understand how the form works
Eight guides. Free forever. No card, no email.
- How the order of your choices really works
- How many schools to name, and why
- What happens if you get none of them
- The rules schools use to pick children
- What being late actually costs you
Yours at the end of the check. Nothing to pay.
Build choices that work
One pack, matched to the risk in your choices. One payment.
- Your choices built slot by slot, in order
- How to find a school you are almost certain to get
- Where last year’s distance numbers are, and how to read them
- The extra forms some schools need, and when they are due
- A last check before you press send
Shown at the end of the check, once we know where your risk is.
The difference in one line. The free guides explain the form. The pack builds your choices.
Why you can take our word for it
We are new. So here is exactly what we are and what we are not.
All 20,036 of them, from the Department for Education’s own register. Type a name and we tell you what kind of school it is and whether it wants a form of its own.
No school, council or adviser pays us. We sell one thing, to you, once. That is the only money that reaches us.
If your choices already look sound, the check says so and we sell you nothing. There is no upsell and no second product waiting behind it.
If your child is not offered one of the schools you name, reply to your receipt. We refund you in full, and our appeal pack is yours free. Changed your mind for any other reason? Sixty days, no form, no questions.
Questions parents ask first
Does putting a school first help me get in?
No. Each school looks at your child on its own rules and cannot see where you ranked it. The order only decides which one you are offered if more than one says yes.
Will choosing other schools hurt my first choice?
No. Your first choice never sees the rest of your choices. Naming fewer schools does not help you. It only takes away your backups.
What if I get none of the schools I named?
The council gives you the nearest school to your home with a space left. It will be a school you did not choose, and it may not be near.
When is the school application deadline?
31 October for secondary school (Year 7) and 15 January for primary school (Reception), the year before your child starts.
What if I apply late?
Late forms are only looked at after every on-time one. In a busy area the popular schools are full by then.
Is this legal advice?
No. It is information, built on the codes and your council’s own rules.
Check your choices before you send your application
The check asks ten questions. In three minutes, you will know whether your choices are safe and what to fix.
Free. No card, no account.
Not sending your application tonight?
We will remind you before applications close
We send four emails before your closing date: one when you should write down your choices, one when you should check distances, one when schools’ own forms are usually due, and one the day before applications close. After the fourth email, the reminders stop. The eight free guides are included with the reminders.
Which school is your child starting?