Waiting lists

If we have been unable to offer your child a place at a preferred school, they will have been added to the waiting list. It is important that parents understand that waiting lists are not ranked in time receipt order but by the schools ‘oversubscription criteria’ and waiting list positions can move down as well as up.

Requesting your child’s waiting list information

You can request your child’s waiting list information once a term from October until May half-term. 

Due to the high volume of In Year school application received each summer, waiting list information is not provided in the months of June, July, August and September. It typically takes until the start of October for waiting lists to settle.

Please email schooladmissions@wokingham.gov.uk including your child’s full name and date of birth.  

Why children move down on waiting lists

If your child moves down a waiting list, it’s likely to be because another child has been added to the waiting list and has been considered under a higher oversubscription criterion or lives closer, causing your child to move down the waiting list. This is more likely to happen if your child is on the wait list for a school and you live outside a schools ‘designated area’.

When do spaces typically become available 

Schools have a legal duty to ensure the child who has left is on roll at another school or is known to their new local authority’s education welfare team before they can be taken off roll and the space offered to another child. 
Because of this we see very few places becoming available before a school holiday.  School places typically become available a week or two after a school holiday and parents need to be aware that it is unlikely that your child will start in a new school on the first day of the new term. 

Wait lists will be closed at the end of a school year, and parents will need to reapply for a place at their preferred school.

Reapplying to go back onto the waiting list each year

You must apply for each academic year via a new in year application to remain on the list, you can do this from the second week in June.  During this time, we will continue to use the current academic year wait list until it is closed on 31st July.  Providing approximately 7-weeks for you to add your child’s name to the new academic year wait list before we start to use it.