Apply for primary school

The Starting Primary School 2025 brochure (PDF) has all the information you need to know about making your application. Section 3 (pages 26 to 29) of the brochure shows details of all the primary schools in Waltham Forest, including where they are, how many places there are in each year group, and whether they have a breakfast and teatime club.  It also shows what type of school it is, for example, a community, voluntary aided, voluntary controlled, academy, trust or free school. 

Each school has admissions criteria which governs how places are offered to children.  The admissions criteria for all schools is on pages 11 to 23 in the brochure..  

If you are not sure which schools are closest to your home address you can search on the government website, Compare School Performance.  If you click on location, you can either use your current location, or enter your postcode and search.  Once the results are shown, you can filter the results in the left column by education phase.  Please note that this will bring up all primary schools within the radius indicated. Please note that this may also show independent (fee-paying) schools.  If you wish to apply for an independent school, you must apply directly to the school, and not through your application to the local authority.

You can make your application by applying now through the eAdmissions website. The eAdmissions guide (PDF) explains how to apply for your child’s school place online .

When completing your application form please ensure that you tick the relevant box against your chosen schools to indicate any additional priority your child may have for being allocated a place at the school (such as a sibling attends, there is a medical or social reason or your child is a looked after or previously looked after child). If you require more information regarding admissions criteria priority, please see the Starting Primary School 2025 brochure above.

It is your responsibility to provide evidence to support your priority claim and this must be submitted with your application by the closing date. If you submit the evidence after the closing date, it may not be possible for school admissions to consider it before places are allocated on national offer day. If you tick the box on the application form but you do not provide any supporting evidence, your application will not be considered under this priority, and you will not be reminded to submit your evidence.

If you have any technical issues when applying online, please go to eAdmissions support page. If you still require help after visiting this page, please contact the admissions team by email: admissions@walthamforest.gov.uk.

If you are unable to apply online, you can download and complete the primary common application form (PDF). It has instructions on the back explaining how to submit the application once it has been completed.