Offer of a primary school place

Waiting lists

Southwark Council’s school admissions team holds waiting lists for all Southwark schools until 10 July 2025. After this date, waiting lists will be returned to each school which will maintain it for a minimum of one term (until at least 31 December 2025).

If it is not possible to offer your child a place at one of your preferred schools, we will allocate an alternative school in Southwark which is nearest to your home and has a vacancy. In the meantime, your child’s name will automatically be put on the waiting lists of schools that were named as a higher preference on your application. However, there is a great deal of movement on waiting lists up until the start of the academic year. The school admissions team will contact you should a place become available at your preferred school.

The school admissions code requires admission authorities to hold their waiting list strictly in order of the priorities of their published oversubscription criteria. Please note, if your child's name is added to a school's waiting list, their position may go up or down the list depending on whether any late applicants have been added and how the oversubscription criteria apply to these children (for example, if a late applicant meets a higher admissions criterion than others already on the list, they will be given a higher waiting list position). This ensures that if a vacancy arises at a school at any time, the criteria are used to determine which child is offered a place on the waiting list.

If you wish to know your child’s position on the waiting list at a Southwark primary school, you can email the school admissions team at schools.admissions@southwark.gov.uk from 16 April 2025 after 5pm. If you wish to know your child’s position on the waiting list at a junior school in Southwark, contact the school directly, who will be able to advise you further.

Please note that enquiries relating to primary school waiting list positions must be made by emailing schools.admissions@southwark.gov.uk. For the purposes of data protection please provide your unique application reference number in any correspondence that you send to us.

If a conditional offer made from a waiting list is not accepted within five working days it will be withdrawn and offered to the next child on the list.

If you change address while on a waiting list, evidence of the new address will be required when measuring for the home to school distance criterion.

You may also ask for your child’s name to be added to the waiting list of any out of borough schools listed on your application form.

Page last updated: 30 August 2024