PRIMARY school offer day, when you find out whether your child has secured a place at your preferred school, is underway today.
Here’s everything you need to know about what happens on National Offer Day, how the process works and what to do next.
When is primary school offer day 2026?
This year Primary National Offer Day falls today, Thursday April 16.
This is the date when local authorities across England release reception place offers for children due to start primary school in September 2026.
The offer will arrive by email on the evening of April 16 for parents who applied online.
Those who applied on paper may receive a letter in the post in the days that follow.
Parents can also log in to their local authority’s online admissions portal to check their offer directly.
The offer you receive will be the highest-ranked school on your application form that can give your child a place.
If you have been offered your first choice, all other preferences on your list are automatically removed.
Once you have received your offer, you will need to accept or decline it within the deadline set by your local authority — typically between 10 and 14 days from offer day.
If you do not respond in time your offer could expire and be given to another child.
Check your local council’s website for the exact deadline in your area.
How are primary school places decided?
Places at state primary schools in England are allocated by local authorities using each school’s published admissions criteria.
When a school receives more applications than it has places – known as being oversubscribed – it must rank children in order of priority using these criteria.
Children in the care of a local authority, or those who were previously in care, are given the highest priority.
After that, schools generally prioritise children with a sibling already on the roll, followed by children living within the school’s catchment area.
Where there are still too many eligible applicants, distance from the school is used as a tiebreaker, with those living closest given priority.
Faith schools use additional criteria relating to religious practice, while some schools may also give priority to children with specific medical or social needs.
It is worth noting that the odds are in most families’ favour.
According to the Department for Education’s official statistics, 92.6 per cent of families in England were offered their first choice of primary school in 2025.
While 98.3 per cent received an offer for one of their preferred schools during the same year.
What happens after I receive an offer of a school place?
Official guidance recommends parents should accept the primary school place offered before your local authority’s deadline, even if the school is not your first choice.
Accepting the place does not prevent you from pursuing other options – it simply secures a school for September while you explore alternatives.
If your child was not offered a higher-preference school, in many cases they will be automatically placed on a waiting list for any schools ranked above the one offered.
However, some councils require you to request this yourself, so it is worth checking with your local authority to confirm.
Waiting lists are ranked according to each school’s admissions criteria, so positions can change as other families accept or decline places.
If you are unhappy with the school your child has been offered, you also have the right to appeal.
To do this, parents should contact the school’s admission authority.
You can find this by visiting their local council website, which you can find using the government’s find your local council tool.
It is a good idea to make a note of the appeals deadline.
In the rare case that your child isn’t accepted into any of your chosen three schools, the council is required to offer them a place at another one.
