Secondary school admissions

Admissions process for young people with an EHCP

If your child or young person has an EHC plan there is a separate process for applying for a secondary school place. You do not need to apply through the normal process for transfer to secondary school.

The SEN Team will be your key contacts and will support to you and your young person with an EHCP with making the application.

Moving from one phase of education to the next is a significant change and it's important that parents, carers or young people think about what school or college should be named in their EHC plan.

For this reason, there should always be an annual review of the EHC plan before a transfer to a new phase of education.

Annual review before transfer to a new phase of education

For a move to secondary school, SEN regulations require that the EHC plan must be reviewed and amended before 15 February in the year your young person will start at the new school. This means the annual review process should begin in the autumn term of Year 6.

Before the annual review takes place you may choose to attend open days and information sessions for a variety of schools/settings to establish whether the provision is appropriate for your child's needs.

Process for moving to a new phase of education

Where a child or young person is moving to a new phase of their education, the process is as follows:

1. Local authority (LA) reviews the plan
2. LA sends proposed amendments and a copy of the plan (with section I left blank) to the parent or young person
3. Parent or young person has at least 15 days to make representations about the proposed amendments/content of the plan
4. LA issues a final amended plan, with notice of appeal rights, by the statutory deadlines

Support and further information about the Annual Review and transition to secondary school

If you would like to discuss your child's transition to secondary school, you can contact the SEN Review Team using the contact details at the bottom of the page.

Find out more about the Annual Review process by watching this short video produced by The Council for Disabled Children:

You can also find more information about moving to a new phase of education with an EHC plan on Ipsea's website.