After offer day in Tower Hamlets
The dates we hold for replies, appeals and waiting lists in Tower Hamlets, for Reception and Year 7, and what happened at each school last year.
Rules checked 19 October 2026 against the current codes on gov.uk
The dates
From the council: Tower Hamlets's school admissions page.
Reception, September 2026 entry
| Date | What | What to do | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31 December 2026 | Reception: waiting lists kept until | Waiting lists for this intake are kept until at least this date. Keep in touch with the council if you are on one. | School Admissions Code 2.15 |
Reception, September 2027 entry
| Date | What | What to do | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 15 January 2027 | Reception: late applications cut-off | The last day the council takes a late application before offer day, usually only with a good reason. | Tower Hamlets council |
| 16 April 2027 | Primary offer day | Offers arrive by email from your home council. Check which school you were offered. | Tower Hamlets council |
| 30 April 2027 | Reception: reply to your offer (about) | Accept or decline the place you were offered, and ask to stay on the waiting list for schools you ranked higher. | Usual practice: about two weeks; your offer letter gives the date |
| 17 May 2027 | Reception: appeal deadline (earliest) | If you want to appeal for a school you were refused, lodge the appeal with the school's admission authority by this date. | School Admission Appeals Code: at least 20 school days after offers |
| 31 December 2027 | Reception: waiting lists kept until | Waiting lists for this intake are kept until at least this date. Keep in touch with the council if you are on one. | School Admissions Code 2.15 |
Year 7, September 2026 entry
| Date | What | What to do | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 31 December 2026 | Year 7: waiting lists kept until | Waiting lists for this intake are kept until at least this date. Keep in touch with the council if you are on one. | School Admissions Code 2.15 |
Year 7, September 2027 entry
| Date | What | What to do | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 March 2027 | Secondary offer day | Offers arrive by email from your home council. Check which school you were offered. | Tower Hamlets council |
| 15 March 2027 | Year 7: reply to your offer (about) | Accept or decline the place you were offered, and ask to stay on the waiting list for schools you ranked higher. | Usual practice: about two weeks; your offer letter gives the date |
| 29 March 2027 | Year 7: appeal deadline | If you want to appeal for a school you were refused, lodge the appeal with the school's admission authority by this date. | Tower Hamlets council |
| 31 December 2027 | Year 7: waiting lists kept until | Waiting lists for this intake are kept until at least this date. Keep in touch with the council if you are on one. | School Admissions Code 2.15 |
How each step works, and the national rules: After offer day.
What happened at each school last year
The published figures from last year's offers. They describe what happened then, school by school. They are not a forecast, and they say nothing about any one family's case. Waiting lists are kept in the order of each school's admission criteria (School Admissions Code 2021, 2.15).
Reception, September 2026 entry
- DfE's figures cover 65 schools for September 2026 entry. At 55 of them, every family who put the school first was offered a place there. At 10, some families who put the school first were not offered it.
Every school (65)
Year 7, September 2026 entry
- DfE's figures cover 17 schools for September 2026 entry. At 9 of them, every family who put the school first was offered a place there. At 8, some families who put the school first were not offered it.
Every school (17)
| School | Places offered | Put it first | Put it first, not offered it | Applicants refused |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bishop Challoner Catholic School | 90 | 61 | 0 | not held |
| Bow School | 122 | 72 | 0 | not held |
| Canary Wharf Secondary | 74 | 59 | 0 | not held |
| Central Foundation Girls' School | 214 | 170 | 0 | not held |
| George Green's School | 188 | 175 | 3 | not held |
| Langdon Park Community School | 167 | 106 | 0 | not held |
| London Enterprise Academy | 55 | 34 | 0 | not held |
| Morpeth School | 219 | 177 | 1 | not held |
| Mulberry Academy London Dock | 161 | 122 | 0 | not held |
| Mulberry Academy Shoreditch | 143 | 119 | 0 | not held |
| Mulberry School for Girls | 232 | 238 | 28 | not held |
| Mulberry Stepney Green Mathematics and Computing College | 185 | 116 | 10 | not held |
| Oaklands School | 86 | 67 | 0 | not held |
| St Paul's Way Trust School | 200 | 401 | 210 | not held |
| Stepney All Saints Church of England Secondary School | 188 | 234 | 74 | not held |
| Swanlea School | 192 | 276 | 89 | not held |
| Wapping High School | 0 | 13 | 13 | not held |
Places offered and first preferences: DfE, Primary and secondary school applications and offers (school level, Open Government Licence). "Put it first, not offered it" is DfE's number of first preferences less its number of first-preference offers. Applicants refused: Tower Hamlets's own offer-day tables, where we hold them; "not held" means we do not have the figure, not that it was nought.
Moving to Tower Hamlets mid-year
Apply to the council, for any school. Apply online on the council's parent portal for an in-year place or transfer; academies, free schools and voluntary aided schools are applied for through the same process, with a supplementary form returned to the school where required. Transfers run in termly rounds; children out of school are processed within 15 school days.
- Decision: Child out of school: "Application processed within 15 school days of date received"; transfers considered in termly rounds per the published timetable.
From Tower Hamlets's own in-year admissions page (Not stated on the page (search summary: transfer deadline 5 June 2026; new transfer applications from 1 September 2026).): read it there before you apply, as arrangements change each year.
How in-year applications work everywhere: Moving mid-year.
Also: All Tower Hamlets admission dates · Moving mid-year
Sources
The rules on this page are from these, checked on gov.uk on 19 October 2026. Where a paragraph number is given, it is the paragraph of that code.
- School Admissions Code 2021: in force since 1 September 2021; the current version.
- School Admission Appeals Code 2022: for appeals lodged from 1 October 2022; the current version.
- gov.uk: School admissions: the government's guide for parents, updated 8 January 2025.
- Fair Access Protocols: guidance (DfE, August 2021): published with the School Admissions Code; the current version.
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