The priorities below will be used to decide who gets a place at community and voluntary controlled infant, primary and secondary schools in East Sussex for 2026-2027.

1. Looked after children and children who were looked after, but ceased to be so because they were adopted (or subject to residence orders or special guardianship orders) immediately following being looked after.

An explanation of who falls into this criterion can be found in the 'Explanation of words and phrases' set out at: Apply for a school place 2027 to 2028/East Sussex County Council.

2. Children who will have a brother or sister at the school (or linked junior school) at the time of admission and who live at the same address, within the pre-defined community area.

3. Children of staff members contracted to work at the school in question where:

a) The member of staff has been employed at the school for two or more years at the time at which the application for admission to the school is made, and/or

b) The member of staff is recruited to fill a vacant post for which there is a demonstrable skill shortage

An explanation of who falls into this priority can be found in the definitions section set out at: Apply for a school place 2026 to 2027/East Sussex County Council.

4. Other children living within a predefined community area.   

5. Children who will have a brother or sister at the school (or linked junior school) at the time of admission who live at the same address, outside the predefined community area.            

6. Other children.

Siblings

Children are 'siblings' if they are full, half, adoptive or foster brother or sister living in the same household including siblings attending sixth forms.

Tiebreaker

• In the event of oversubscription within any priority, place allocation will be decided by prioritising applications on the basis of home to school distance measured in a straight line.  This will be measured from the address point in the school (supplied by Ordnance Survey) to the address point in the family home.  For split site schools, we will measure to the site where the child will attend for the majority of lessons at the point of entry.
• In the event that applicants cannot be prioritised using the tie-breaker because the distance measurements are the same, the Authority will use random allocation to decide which children will be offered the remaining places. This will be done electronically using the Authority’s admissions software.

Applications for admission out of year group

Arrangements for requesting a delayed reception start can be found at: Admissions for summer-born children/East Sussex County Council.

Arrangements for requesting admission out of year group at other points in a child's education can be found at: Apply for a school place 2026-2027/East Sussex County Council.