As you will be aware, primary school places will be offered on Thursday 16 April 2020. This update is to provide you with some useful information about the process and point you to additional support that will be available online.

Due to the current coronavirus outbreak, the council’s telephone lines may be busier than usual and it may take us longer to respond to emails.

Please carefully read this update, the information on the website www.birmingham.gov.uk/schooladmissions and the offer letter you receive before contacting the council.

1) Offer emails

Families who have completed and submitted an on time online application will be sent an email informing them which school has been offered to their child. Emails will be sent on Thursday 16 April 2020 and we expect that emails will be received by 4pm – the exact time will depend on a number of variables including email service providers. Families will also receive their child’s offer by letter which will be posted first class on Wednesday 15 April 2020.

Please do not contact Birmingham City Council before you have received the offer of a school place.

The School Admissions team will be unable to discuss which school place has been offered to your child by phone or email until you have received your offer. You may contact School Admissions if you have not received your email or letter by Monday 20 April 2020.

2) Offer decision

The email and letter you receive will name the school your child has been offered for September 2020.

If your child has not been offered a place at any of the schools you applied for, this will be because the school(s) received more applications than there were places available and other children met the admission criteria more closely than your child. Details of school admission criteria are available at www.birmingham.gov.uk/schooladmissions.

Due to the current coronavirus outbreak and the impact on Birmingham schools, you will only need to inform us by 30 April 2020 if you are refusing this offer. Please do so by email, details of this email address will be included on your offer letter. If you do not contact us to refuse the offer, the school will update their records to show the offer has been accepted.

The deadline for refusals is Thursday 30 April 2020.

You are strongly encouraged not to refuse the offer so that your child has a guaranteed place for September 2020. By refusing the offer, the place may be given to a child on the waiting list for that school. The offer being accepted will not affect your child’s waiting list position for any of your higher preference schools or influence the outcome of any appeal you may submit.

3) Waiting lists

If you do not receive an offer of a place at your higher preference schools your child’s name will automatically be placed on the waiting lists for those schools.

Please note that waiting lists are compiled in the same order as the oversubscription criteria, e.g. siblings first, etc. Once late applications are processed, late applicants will also be added to waiting lists according to this order, so your child’s name could move down as well as up a waiting list. Having a place on the waiting list is no guarantee that a place will become available.

Information on waiting list positions will not be available until 7 May 2020 once we have allowed time for related movement and time to generate accurate lists.

From 7 May 2020 you can contact Children’s Services who will let you know who holds the waiting list for the school you want (either School Admissions or the school itself). Contact details are available on our website www.birmingham.gov.uk/schooladmissions. Waiting list information will not be available before the above date.

The Admissions team will contact you if a school place becomes available for your child from a waiting list.

4) Appeals

If you are considering the possibility of submitting an appeal, please read the advice regarding appeals on the School Admissions website carefully. You can only appeal against the refusal of a place at a school you applied for.

Appeals are heard and decided by panels who are completely independent of the council and the school(s) you may appeal for. Consider the likelihood of your appeal being successful. For example, were you realistic with the preferences you submitted for your child? Appeals are generally only successful if you or your child have exceptional reasons for needing admission to a particular school. There are no guarantees that any appeal will be successful (see below for the number heard and successful for appeals administered by Birmingham City Council over the last three years).

Should you wish to appeal, the closing date for submitting your written appeal is Monday 18 May 2020. Appeals received by this date will be heard within 40 school days (by 20 July 2020). If you submit an appeal after this date, it may not be heard before the beginning of September 2020.

You will be able to access the appeal form online via www.birmingham.gov.uk/schooladmissions from 16 April 2020.