Admissions

Secondary Admissions 2026 Gateshead Council

Make sure you look at the ‘Admission to Secondary School’ booklet which contains essential information that will help you in making your child’s application, including:

• admission policies and oversubscription criteria for Gateshead schools
• information on how places are offered
• the number of applications received and the number of places offered for previous years

Important:

• we recommend you apply to 3 schools.  Applying for only 1 school does not improve you chances of gaining a place at this school
• you cannot apply to Emmanuel College using the Council’s application system.
• if you rank a school outside Gateshead as one or more of your preferences you must look at the admission policy for that school before submitting your application
• you must apply by 31 October 2025

Secondary admissions timeline

If your child has been refused a place at any school for which you have expressed a preference, you have the right to appeal against this decision.

Information about the appeals procedure for voluntary aided schools is available from the school in question. Under Department for Education guidance, the appeal procedure does not apply to nursery admissions.

Appeals for community schools

The letter informing you that a place cannot be offered to your child will tell you how to appeal. If you decide to appeal, you should contact the School Admissions Team following receipt of your refusal letter to request an appeal form.

Send your completed appeal form to:

schoolappealsteam@gateshead.gov.uk or

Clerk to the Independent Appeals Panel
Corporate Services and Governance
Civic Centre
Regent Street
Gateshead
NE8 1HH

Where possible, we will arrange and conduct all admission appeal hearings for September 2026, before the end of the current academic year.

Late appeal forms may result in appeal hearing dates having to be rearranged at short notice with inconvenience to other parents and panel members. Before deciding whether to appeal you should think about:

• the admission policy for admitting pupils
• your reasons for wanting your child to attend the school
• how strong a case you have.

You may also want to consider visiting the school where you have been offered a place or alternative schools that still have places available. Contact the School Admissions Team on: 0191 433 6185 if you would like information on the availability of places at other schools you may consider.

If you decide to appeal, your appeal will be heard by a panel that is independent of us, Gateshead Council, and the school. You may want to attend an appeal for more than one school at which you have been refused a place. The outcome of one appeal does not prevent you from attending another. You will be informed of the date and place of the appeal hearing. You should be given at least seven days notice.

Seven days before the hearing, we will send copies of the statement of case that will be put before the appeal panel in support of the our decision not to offer your child a place. You are advised to attend the appeal hearing. You will have the opportunity to put your case forward and ask questions. You can take someone with you if you wish. If you are unable to attend, the case made by you in writing will be considered in your absence. In making your case, you may want to refer to your original reasons for choosing the school.

You should submit any additional information with your appeal form. If not you can provide these to the clerk in good time for the panel and to be able to consider them before the hearing. There will be representatives from us and the school at the hearing to explain to the panel why it was not possible to offer your child a place. At the end of the hearing, the clerk should be able to give you an idea of how soon you can expect to receive the panel’s written decision.

The panel’s decision is final. 

You can only appeal once for admission of your child to a particular school for any given academic year. We will only determine a second application for any given academic year where it accepts there has been a significant and material change in your circumstances relevant to the question of admission.

Contact us

Education Support Service
The School Admissions Team

0191 433 6185

schoolappealsteam@gateshead.gov.uk

In year transfer application

Parents with children of statutory school age who either

• move into Gateshead and need a school place,
• or are resident in Gateshead and wish to change their child’s school to another Gateshead school

must complete an in year transfer application form.

Paper copies are available from the School Admissions Team on telephone number 0191 433 6185.

If you are moving to a new house, we will need a copy of the exchange of contracts or a rental agreement before we consider the new address.

We can not offer school places on the basis of intended future changes of address unless you can provide the relevant documentary evidence.

Year groups in some schools may be full and may not have places available when you move house or decide to transfer your child from one school to another. Unfortunately, we cannot hold places back for parents who decide in the future to move into a particular area.

The offer of a place at any school is dependent on the availability of places in the relevant year group at the time of application.

If you want to apply for a transfer to schools outside Gateshead, you must contact the relevant local authority and request their in-year transfer form.  We cannot process requests for schools that are outside Gateshead, nor can we process requests to Emmanuel College.

Looked after children (LAC), previously looked after children and children in state care outside of England who have been adopted

Please provide documents that we can accept as proof of looked after or previously looked after status:

• adoption certificates or orders that reference section 12 of the Adoption Act
• adoption certificates or orders that reference Section 46 of the Children’s Act
• any Child Arrangement Order
• any Special Guardianship Order that mentions Section 14A
• any residence order issued prior to 22/04/2014
• written confirmation from an involved council employee (ideally the assigned Social Worker)
• a document saying they are currently in public care
• a document saying they are formerly in public care when the applicant notes this on their application

We will also require a letter or email from the social worker involved with the child to say that they are in agreement with the application.

Medical evidence

If you are applying under the social/medical category, you will need to provide independent evidence from a health professional such as a consultant. This should state the school you are applying for is the only school your child can attend and the reason why.

Proof of parental responsibility

Where there is any doubt about parental responsibility we will ask you to provide proof of parental responsibility. In such cases, whatever you choose to provide will be entirely up to you. However,
it must indicate that you have parental responsibility.

Examples of documents that prove parental responsibility include:

• the child’s birth certificate
• parental responsibility agreement entered into by birth parents
• copy of a court order giving father parental responsibility
• Child Arrangement Order in respect of the child Adoption Order
• upon taking office as a formally appointed guardian of the child

This should be accompanied with proof that you are the person named e.g. passport.

Refusals and appeals

If we cannot offer your child a place at one of your chosen schools, we will let you know which other schools have places available.

We will also notify you in writing of your right to appeal. Appeal forms are available from the School Admissions Team.

Completed appeal forms must be returned to:

Strategic Director
Corporate Services and Governance
Civic Centre
Regent Street
Gateshead
NE8 1HH

Your appeal will be heard within 30 school days following the date of receipt.

Vacant places may arise before the date of the appeal hearing. Where this happens, the school will offer the vacant place to the child that is top of their waiting list. They will use the admission criteria set out within their admission policy.

Appeal forms for Voluntary Aided Schools are available from the school.

If year groups are full the school will maintain a waiting list. Any vacancies which may arise will be offered using this list. If you would like your child’s name placed on the waiting list for a school, you must contact the school to request this. If a place becomes available and is offered to your child, you must then complete a school transfer form to take up this offer.