Junior Year 3 transfer

Apply to transfer from infant to junior school for September 2024.

Choosing your junior school

Make an application to junior school

Parents of infant school children born between 1 September 2016 and 31 August 2017 need to apply for a junior school place for September 2024.
Visit the transferring or moving school page if you want to move your child to another school now (in-year transfers).
 

Visit the transferring or moving school page if you want to move your child to another school now (in-year transfers).

Visit the school

Before you complete an application, we recommend that you visit the school you want your child to attend. You can do this by contacting the school directly to arrange an appointment.

You can also:

  • talk to other parents
  • look at your catchment area
  • attend open days.

Who can apply

Junior applications can only be made for Year 2 infant school children transferring to Year 3 at junior school.

If your child attends a primary school already, and you want them to transfer to another primary school for Year 3, this will be treated as an in-year transfer. The earliest such applications can be submitted is June 2024. See the school transfers page for further information.

Junior applications are not limited to just the schools above. Any junior or primary school can be listed as a preference for infant to junior transfer.

Details for every state-funded Oxfordshire school are on our list of schools page. On this page, you can find each school’s location, contact details, catchment area (where it has one), admissions rules and history of allocation data.

However, it is important to note that junior school applications can only be made for infant school children transferring to Year 3.

If your child attends a primary school already, and you want them to transfer to another primary school for Year 3, this will be treated as an in-year transfer. The earliest such applications can be submitted is June 2024. Please see school transfers page for further information.

Consider schools in your catchment area

Many, but not all, junior schools have catchment areas.

Where your child has a catchment area school, they are more likely to get a place, but it isn't guaranteed. If there are more applications than places, we follow the school's published admission rules to decide priority. We advise that you list your catchment school as one of your preferences if there is one for your address. 

You can find details of catchment areas for schools that use them on our list of schools page.

Warning

Attending their catchment school does not guarantee that your child will get free home to school transport.

Think about how your child will get to school

Free home to school transport

We provide free home to school transport in limited circumstances as detailed in our policy.

Junior school children are eligible for free home to school transport, where:

  • they attend their nearest available school (not always their catchment school) and 
  • the school is more than two miles from their home address (for those age 7) or
  • the school is more than three miles from their home address (for those age 8 and above).

We may provide transport where the distance to the nearest available school is less than the distances above, and we have listed the route as dangerous. Visit the travelling to school page for further details and the full transport policy.

Nearest available school

When assessing for free transport, we do not measure the distance to the nearest school in the same way as the catchment school. So, the nearest school may not be your child's catchment school.

Think about how your child will get to school if you apply to a school that's further than your nearest available school.

When a new school is built, this can affect a child’s eligibility for school transport.

To find out where your nearest school is, contact us. 

How places were allocated in previous years

The catchment area is one of the ways that places at schools are decided. There are other factors, such as whether a child has a brother or sister at the school or whether they have special educational needs. Religious or faith schools could use the religion of your child or family as a deciding factor.

Find the admission rules for all state-funded secondary schools, and how places were allocated on the individual school pages.

Independent school

If your child is going to attend an independent school, you must provide us with the name of the school in writing as soon as possible by emailing admissions.schools@oxfordshire.gov.uk

Home educating

If you are going to educate your child at home, please let us know in writing as soon as possible by emailing admissions.schools@oxfordshire.gov.uk. Contact the Elective Home Education Team for further information.

Where to get more information

For advice and information about applying for a junior school place, please contact us (School Admissions Team).

More detailed information about the application process for junior school applications can be found in our booklet Stepping Up (pdf format, 911Kb)