Secondary School Admissions

All secondary schools maintained by Cheshire East Council are organised along comprehensive lines catering for pupils of all levels of ability. Some schools provide education for pupils from age 11 up to 18; in other areas the secondary schools serve the 11-16 age range, with sixth form education provided in nearby colleges.

All schools offer the National Curriculum. In addition, many schools have their own specialisms. Some schools have developed curriculum areas such as technology, languages, sciences, sport, mathematics, computing, business enterprise and the arts, and may have been awarded approved specialist status within the Government’s specialist school programme.

Applications for School Places - for September 2013 or In Year Transfers

Applications for places must be made through your 'home' local authority. This means that if you live in Cheshire East, your application for a school place must be made on our application form as your 'home authority'. You may be looking to apply for schools in other local authority areas and providing these are English authorities, you must also include these on our application form.  

If you are not resident in Cheshire East and wish to apply for a school maintained by this Council, you will need to include the school as a preference on your home authority's application form.

Not resident in England?

If you are not resident in England but wish to apply for a school maintained by an English authority, you will need to contact the local authority that maintains the school. For example, if you are resident overseas and are relocating to Cheshire East and wish to apply for a secondary school place, you must apply on the Cheshire East application form.

Application Forms

The preferred method for applying for school places is via our online application form with around 96% of applications submitted in this way for admission in September 2012. Paper application forms are also available within our Applying for school places information booklet, or contact us

We always advise that you refer to our information booklets for more information about the process before completing your application for a school place.

As applications are prioritised on the basis of determined admission arrangements, you are advised to read the arrangements relevant to your preferred schools and to consider any objections submitted to the Schools Adjudicator.  Admission arrangements that relate to Community and Voluntary Controlled schools where the Local Authority is the Admission Authority are detailed in "Applying for School Places 2013-14" booklet.  Admission Arrangements for Academies, and Free Schools, Voluntary Aided, Foundation and Trust Schools can be found in "Secondary Schools Supplement 2013-14", from page 19.