Contents

Primary schools your child can go to

There are 57 primary schools in Bexley. Most start at reception and go through to year 6. For those schools, you only need to apply once, when they move up from nursery.

A small number are infant schools, which means they only go up to the end of year 2. That means you’ll have to apply again for your child to transfer to a junior school for years 3 to 6.

When you apply, you can choose up to six preferences for your child. You don’t have to fill in all six, but putting down only one doesn’t give you a better chance of getting in.

Start your search close to home

There is no such thing as a catchment area in Bexley. We’ll aim to offer places starting with those who live closest (in a straight line), but you don’t have to live within a certain distance. Living nearby isn’t a guarantee, but it’s a good idea to start by looking at the schools closest to you.

Visit all the schools you’re interested in

We strongly recommend you visit the schools you’re most interested in to find out more about them. We have a list of all school details, and you can get in touch or check their websites to find out about open days and appointments.

Find out what kind of school it is

Our schools are a mixture of:

  • Fully maintained schools – these are run entirely by us at the council
  • Academies – these are government-run but independent from us
  • Voluntary-aided schools – these are run by a voluntary group (usually religious)
  • Voluntary-controlled schools – these were set up by a voluntary group (usually religious) but are now run by us
  • and one free school – this is a state school set up in response to parent demand

Among these is one ‘all-through’ school, Harris Garrard Academy. If your child goes to primary school there, they can transfer to secondary school without applying again later.

You can apply to all our schools using the same form.

Check the admissions arrangements at your chosen schools

All the schools we run use the same list of priorities to decide who gets a place. Academies, free schools, voluntary-controlled and voluntary-aided schools can make their own arrangements. So, for a faith school, for example, you’ll usually have to fill out an extra form about your child’s religious background.

Co-ordination schemes for admission to Reception and year 7

This statement explains the roles of the London Borough of Bexley as the coordinating authority for applications for all primary schools in Bexley and as the admission authority for community and voluntary controlled schools. This statement is provided in accordance with the Department for Education School Admission Appeals Code of Practice. It applies to applications for Reception places in infant and primary schools and Year 3 places in junior schools.

Co-ordinated Primary School Admissions mean that Local Authorities work together using a common process and timescale so that parents only have to complete one application form and receive only one offer of a school place on the designated offer day. Parents submit a Primary Common Application Form (PCAF) to their home Local Authority listing their preferred schools regardless of the Local Authority area in which the schools are situated. The London Borough of Bexley allows parents to express up to 6 preferences.

Local Authorities exchange application information with each other so that each Local Authority has a complete list of all the children for whom applications have been made to schools within its area.

The School Admissions Team of the London Borough of Bexley submits to each voluntary aided school and Academy in the borough a list of children whose parents have applied for the school on their PCAF. The list includes the home-to-school distance calculated by the London Borough of Bexley’s Geographic Information System (GIS) map measuring system. This allows schools to sequence applicants within oversubscription categories, where the school uses home-to-school distance as a deciding factor. The Governors of the school put the applicants
in rank order in accordance with the school’s over-subscription criteria and return the list of applicants in that order to the School Admissions Team. The rank of each applicant is entered on the Authority’s database.

For community schools, the applicants are put in sequence according to the London Borough of Bexley’s over-subscription criteria found in Admission to Primary Schools 2025 to 2026.

The allocation process is then run in three parts:

  1. Each preference is considered separately regardless of its rank on the application form. The computer programme records whether or not the child is eligible for each preference.
  2. If children are eligible for more than one preference, the highest preference is retained. Any lower preferences that the child qualified for are discarded as “not required as a higher preference is being offered”.
    At this stage, Local Authorities inform each other of the places that can be offered in their schools to children resident in other areas.
  3. When applicants have not qualified to be offered any of the preferences expressed, a place is offered by the home Local Authority at the nearest school to the family home that has a vacancy at this stage of the allocation process.

Bexley’s School Admissions Team notifies the parents of every child living in Bexley for whom there is an on-time application of the outcome of their application, whether the school offered is in Bexley or another Local Authority area. Emails were sent to those who applied online on 16 April 2024, and letters were posted by first class post on 16 April 2024 to those who applied on a paper form and to online applicants not offered their first preference. Parents offered a place in a Bexley school but who do not live in the borough received the offer letter from their home Local Authority.

The School Admissions Team provides each school, whether community, voluntary controlled, voluntary aided or Academy, with a list of children who are being offered places.

Late applications are processed after the designated offer date. Late applicants are placed on the waiting lists for the preferred schools, and offers of places are made where possible.

Admission arrangements for primary schools in Bexley

Supplementary information forms

Some schools, mainly voluntary aided faith schools, ask parents to complete a supplementary information form when applying for a place for their child at the school.

The supplementary information forms for schools in Bexley are listed below. Forms should be returned directly to the school concerned. You can also obtain paper copies from the schools.