parent guides

National Offer Day 2027: what happens on 1 March and what to do next

The application window closes at midnight on Monday 2 November 2026. Then one long, quiet winter - and on Monday 1 March 2027 an email lands after 4pm with your child's secondary school offer. Here's exactly what it means and what to do in every scenario.

Reviewed 26 October 2026 against kent.gov.uk

Key dates after you've applied

How to read your offer email

Your child gets one offer - the highest-preference school on your application that is able to offer a place. Kent matches everyone's ranked lists against everyone else's, so if your first preference can't offer a place but your second can, you get the second. Any school you ranked below the one you're offered is effectively gone; any school you ranked above it is where the waiting-list and appeal options live.

The email includes your child's pupil ID - keep it, because you'll need it for what comes next.

Step one: accept the place. Yes, even if it's not the one you wanted.

This is the single most important piece of advice on this page, and it comes straight from KCC: accept the offer, even if you're unhappy with it.

Accepting does three things and costs you nothing:

• It guarantees your child has a school place for September, whatever happens next.
• It does not affect your position on any waiting list.
• It does not weaken any appeal. Accepting a place at School B while appealing for School A is normal, expected, and not held against you.

To accept, you email the school directly (contact details are in the offer email) with your child's full name, date of birth, pupil ID, your name, and evidence of your address. The deadline is Monday 15 March 2027. If you later win a place elsewhere through a waiting list or an appeal, just tell the original school you no longer need the place.

The address evidence check - don't skip this

Kent requires at least three pieces of evidence confirming you and your child lived at the application address by the deadline: typically your Council Tax statement or tenancy/exchange documents, plus something like a utility bill, driving licence or benefits letter, plus proof your child lives with you (a Child Benefit statement, GP letter or a bank account in their name). If you can't produce enough evidence, the offer can be withdrawn - so gather documents in February, not on results morning. Moved house since applying, or about to? Email kent.admissions@kent.gov.uk before you do anything else.

Scenario 1: your child got the grammar school you wanted

Accept the place by 15 March, watch for the school's welcome letter (schools can send these from 3 March), and you're done. Congratulations - the only thing left is the induction day in the summer term.

Scenario 2: your child passed the Kent Test, but didn't get the grammar you named

This is the most common disappointment: your child was assessed as suitable (a total score of 345 or more, with no single score below 111 in the 2026 test), but the grammar was oversubscribed and other children ranked higher under its admissions criteria - closer distance, a sibling, a higher score at the super-selectives. Here's the plan, in order:

1. Accept the place you were offered. See above - it changes nothing about your other options.

2. Check your waiting-list position. KCC will automatically put your child on the waiting list for any school you ranked higher than the one offered. If you want to join the list for a school you ranked lower, you must ask KCC's admissions team by the waiting-list deadline of 15 March 2027. One grammar-specific rule: a grammar school can only place children on its waiting list if they've been assessed as suitable for grammar school.

3. Understand how the list actually moves. Waiting lists are not first-come, first-served. By law, every list is held in the school's published oversubscription-criteria order, and it's re-ranked every time a child joins or leaves. A late joiner who lives closer can leapfrog you; a family moving away can lift you several places overnight. Lists move most around reallocation day, then steadily through the summer as families relocate or take up independent school places. To calibrate expectations: The Judd School - one of Kent's most oversubscribed grammars - says it has made around 20 waiting-list offers in each of the last two years, most of them at reallocation.

4. Circle Tuesday 27 April 2027 - reallocation day. KCC runs one central reallocation, offering every place that has become available since 1 March, in oversubscription order. After that date, each school takes over its own waiting list and offers vacancies as they arise - which is when it becomes worth politely keeping in touch with the school.

5. Consider an appeal. You can appeal for any school you named on your application, and you can (and usually should) pursue a waiting list and an appeal at the same time. On-time appeals must be lodged by 13 April 2027 and are heard after reallocation day. Our grammar school appeals guide covers the whole process.

Scenario 3: your child was not assessed as suitable for grammar school

If your child didn't reach the threshold and you named a grammar anyway, that preference is automatically refused on 1 March - the offer email will confirm it. You'll be offered the highest non-grammar preference that can take your child.

You still have a right to appeal to the grammar school - this is where you argue that the school is the right place for your child, with academic evidence to back it. What you can't appeal is the Kent Test assessment decision itself. For children who narrowly missed the threshold, the autumn headteacher assessment (HTA) route may also be relevant for future years. Both routes are covered step by step in our appeals guide.

Scenario 4: your child wasn't offered any of the schools you named

Rare, but it happens - usually when every preference was oversubscribed. In this case KCC must offer a place at an alternative school, normally the nearest school to your home with places available. It may not be a school you know. Before reacting:

• Visit the school's website and, if you can, the school itself. Offer-day shock fades; plenty of families discover the allocated school suits their child well.
• Accept the place anyway - it's your September safety net, and it doesn't cost you your waiting-list or appeal rights.
• Join the waiting lists for your original preferences (automatic for higher preferences; request any others by 15 March) and consider appeals.

Late applications and changes after offer day

Missed the 2 November deadline altogether? Applications received by 15 March 2027 are included in the 27 April reallocation round, but only for schools with places still available - a serious disadvantage at popular grammars, where suitable applicants usually outnumber places. After 15 March, new applications go on a Post-Reallocation SCAF (PRSCAF) and are processed after 27 April, effectively like an in-year admission. If you're cancelling an application rather than adding to it, note that cancelling removes your right to join waiting lists or appeal for the schools on it unless you re-apply for them after 27 April.

Frequently asked questions

One last date for the diary: whatever happens on 1 March, the timeline doesn't end there. Waiting lists run into the summer, and on-time appeals are heard after 27 April - so keep every email, and don't make any irreversible decisions in the first week.

Sources: kent.gov.uk Secondary school places, After you get your school offer, and Kent Test results pages; KCC Co-ordinated Scheme for Secondary Admissions 2027/28 (determined scheme); The Judd School Year 7 admissions dates - all checked 26 October 2026.