Admissions
September 2025 Year 7 Places
We are an academy school and the admission authority is Horsforth School Academy Trust.
The school’s admission authority sets the admission policy every year. You can read our school’s admission policies on our website here.
- In-year applications to start at our school between September 2024 and July 2025 – read our 2024/25 policy
- Applications for year 7 places in September 2025 – read our 2025/26 policy
- Applications for year 7 places in September 2026 – read our 2026/27 policy.
How to Apply for a September 2025 Year 7 Place
If you are applying for a year 7 place for September 2025, all applications are made in advance. The national closing date is 31 October 2024. Offers are made by the local authority on National Offer Day, 3 March 2025.
Our Published Admission Number (PAN) is 285 and this is the number of places the school can admit in year 7 in 2025.
You must apply to the local authority who empties your bins. If this is Leeds, visit this website. The Leeds City Council website is a composite prospectus for all Leeds schools and includes information about:
- all the steps you need to go through to make an application
- the key dates
- a search tool to see if your home address gives any higher priority for admission to a school
- an explanation about how places are offered if there are more applications than spaces (oversubscribed)
- the online application portal – apply online to be sent your offer day letter by email
- a summary of each school’s individual admission policy criteria
- data about who got a place in the last 3 years. This will help you work out if there is a reasonable chance of your child qualifying for a place
- information about applying under a specific admission criterion (such as your child being previously looked after). It is important to ensure you submit all supporting evidence by the deadline to show you meet any such criteria.
You can also watch the Leeds City Council school admissions video for more information.
Application Timetable
The timetable below applies to applications made to Leeds City Council. If you apply to another local authority, they may have different dates. Children born between 1 September 2013 and 31 August 2015 are due to start year 7 in September 2025.
1 September 2024
Applications open. You can apply online to Leeds City Council here.
31 October 2024
National deadline for applying for year 7 2025 places.
28 November 2024
Deadline for making changes that will be considered as being on time by our school.
31 December 2024
Final date Leeds City Council uses for adding late applications or receiving change of address evidence. Any new applications received by Leeds City Council after this date will not be offered a school place until the first round of reallocations in April.
3 March 2025
National Offer Day (first working day after 1 March).
17 March 2025
Deadline for
- accepting your offer for a place at our school
- making any changes to your application before Leeds City Council carries out the first reallocation of places.
1 April 2025
Any year 7 appeals received by this date will be heard before the summer holiday. Leeds City Council arranges our appeals.
April to end of August 2025
Any available year 7 places are automatically allocated from waiting lists by Leeds City Council. Lower preference school offers are also withdrawn automatically (even if accepted).
May to July 2025
Appeals heard by independent appeal panels.
September 2025
Start secondary school.
In-Year Applications
If you are moving into Leeds or want to change schools in Leeds, you need to make a school transfer, often called an in-year application.
Moving schools can be a difficult experience for a child. You should always speak to your child’s current school before trying to move to see what support they can offer you.
How to Apply for an In-Year Place
We are part of the Leeds coordinated in-year application scheme. You can apply for a place online using the Leeds in-year application form. You can apply for places at our school and other Leeds schools.
If you have moved house, you’ll need to submit evidence of the house move at the same time you make your online application. You can find out what you need to provide on the above website.
We have to offer places by applying our admission policy criteria to your child’s application. Leeds City Council will contact you with our decision no later than 15 school days from when you apply. If they cannot offer your child a place at our school, they will:
- add your child to our waiting list in case a place becomes available during the school year
- send you a letter to explain the reasons we cannot offer a place (usually that we are full) and tell you how you can appeal.
Our waiting lists are kept until the end of each school year. You will need to make a new application if you want to be on the waiting list for the following school year.
Appeals
If we cannot offer you a place, you will have the right of appeal. The appeal panel is independent of the school and the council, and their decision is legally binding. Before you appeal you:
- should accept any place that you have been offered in case your appeal is not successful
- should think about why you are appealing and check if it is likely to be successful
- could read the advice for appealing school places on GOV.UK
- could get independent advice on making an appeal from a charity.
Leeds City Council arranges our appeals, and you can find the appeal form here.
If you are appealing for a year 7 place for September 2025, you need to submit your appeal form by any deadline set out above to ensure the appeal will be heard before the summer holidays.
You can appeal because you want your child to attend a particular school. These are successful if the panel agree that the reasons for your appeal outweigh the school’s decision not to admit any more children.
Wanting your child to go to a school because you think it is the best one in the area is not likely to convince the panel that your child should get a place there.
Help and Guidance
Leeds City Council
For assistance with the online application process, please visit the Leeds City Council School Admissions website or call their Admissions Team on 0113 222 4414.
Horsforth School
Email us at admissions@horsforthschool.org.