Starting school in Reading: Reception 2027

Apply by Friday 15 January 2027 · offers on Friday 16 April 2027 · 38 primary schools

How likely is a first choice here?

For September 2026 entry, 91.1% of families living in Reading were offered their first-choice primary school, against 92.4% across England. 18 families (1.0%) were offered none of the schools they named. Reading ranks 44 of 150 councils in England, hardest first (see every council).

7 of its 38 primary schools had more first-choice applications than places.

The most sought-after, by first-choice applications per place offered: All Saints Church of England Aided Infant School (1.9 per place), Battle Primary Academy (1.3 per place), The Hill Primary School (1.3 per place), Moorlands Primary School (1.3 per place), Oxford Road Community School (1.3 per place).

Before you apply

Apply to Reading if you live here, even for a school in another council. You apply to your home council, online, by Friday 15 January 2027. Children born between 1 September 2022 and 31 August 2023 start Reception in September 2027.
Use every preference you're given. A council can only offer a school you named. If none of them has room, it offers a place at a school that does, which may be one you would never have picked.
Rank schools in your true order. Schools rank applicants by their own rules without seeing where you placed them, and you are offered the highest school on your list that can take your child. Putting a popular school first does not cost you a place at your second.
Name at least one school you are likely to get. The table below shows how many families put each school first.
Check for a supplementary form. Many faith schools and some academies ask for one as well as the council application. Without it a child can't be ranked on faith grounds.
Apply on time. Late applications are usually looked at only after every on-time one.

Summer-born children (born 1 April to 31 August) can ask to start Reception a year later instead of joining Year 1; the admission authority decides. Ask Reading before the deadline.

How Reading decides places

Reading publishes explicit 'Primary Schools Designated Areas (Catchments)' — not all schools have one, but catchment is the named mechanism where it exists.

This covers the schools Reading sets the rules for. Academies, free schools and faith schools set their own; check each school's admission arrangements. Reading admissions.

Every primary school: demand for 2026 entry

Sorted by first-choice applications per place, the most contested first.

School	Places offered	First choices per place	First choices offered
All Saints Church of England Aided Infant School Reading	20	1.9	49%
Battle Primary Academy Reading	60	1.3	68%
The Hill Primary School Reading	60	1.3	78%
Moorlands Primary School Reading	30	1.3	68%
Oxford Road Community School Reading	30	1.3	74%
The Heights Primary School Reading	50	1.3	76%
Caversham Primary School Reading	60	1.1	92%
St Martin's Catholic Primary School Reading	14	1.0	100%
The Palmer Primary Academy Reading	58	1.0	100%
Geoffrey Field Infant School Reading	90	1.0	100%
Katesgrove Primary School Reading	90	1.0	99%
Whitley Park Primary and Nursery School Reading	45	1.0	100%
Coley Primary School Reading	30	1.0	97%
New Town Primary School Reading	36	1.0	100%
Ranikhet Academy Reading	30	1.0	100%
Christ The King Catholic Primary School Reading	28	1.0	100%
Southcote Primary School Reading	55	1.0	100%
St Anne's Catholic Primary School Reading	23	1.0	100%
Alfred Sutton Primary School Reading	85	0.9	100%
Green Park Village Primary Academy Reading	60	0.9	100%
St John's Church of England Primary School Reading	58	0.9	100%
New Christ Church Church of England Primary School Reading	16	0.9	100%
Emmer Green Primary School Reading	60	0.9	93%
The Ridgeway Primary School Reading	30	0.9	100%
E P Collier Primary School Reading	26	0.9	100%
Manor Primary School Reading	39	0.9	100%
Wilson Primary School Reading	60	0.9	87%
St Mary & All Saints Church of England Primary School Reading	41	0.9	100%
English Martyrs' Catholic Primary School Reading	56	0.9	100%
Thameside Primary School Reading	56	0.9	100%
Churchend Primary Academy Reading	60	0.9	94%
St Michael's Primary School Reading	46	0.9	100%
Meadow Park Academy Reading	37	0.9	100%
Redlands Primary School Reading	21	0.9	100%
Micklands Primary School Reading	30	0.8	100%
Caversham Park Primary School Reading	5	0.8	100%
Park Lane Primary School Reading	60	0.8	100%
Civitas Academy Reading	60	0.7	100%

Places offered is the number of offers made on national offer day, and first choices offered the share of families who put the school first and got it (Department for Education, September 2026 entry).

Appeals in Reading

Most Reception appeals are infant class size appeals. Classes of five- to seven-year-olds are limited to 30 by law, so a panel can uphold one only if the admission rules were unlawful or wrongly applied, or the refusal was one no reasonable authority would make. That is why so few succeed.

Year	Appeals lodged	Heard by a panel	Upheld	Share of heard appeals upheld
2025/26	70	42	2	4.8%
2024/25	53	35	2	5.7%
2023/24	79	54	13	24.1%

Primary school appeals across all of Reading, from the Department for Education. Appeals are not published school by school. Across England in 2025/26, 15.0% of 7,627 primary appeals heard were upheld. How appeal odds differ between councils.