Required fields are marked with a red asterisk *

Welcome to the ONE Citizens Portal for Wirral Council

To use this site you will need to register. Please note that by registering, you are providing consent for your information to be used by Wirral Council for purposes covered by legislation and to ensure that your child/children are receiving the services they are entitled to. See the Privacy Notice for more information.

You can then create, submit and view applications for supported child related services.

The Portal is open all year round for in-year transfer applications for children and young people already of school age (Foundation 2 up to Year 6 and Year 7 up to Year 11). .Important - the Portal cannot be used to apply for nursery or pre-school places, for private school places or for post-16 places (sixth form). You must apply direct to the school, college or preschool.

Before applying for school places, you are advised to read the relevant information for parents, which is available online. Applicants from abroad must ensure that they have checked that their child is eligible to apply for free education prior to applying.

The Mainstream Admissions Team is unable to give out any information about school allocations over the telephone.

The Wirral Admissions team is working from home with limited access to telephones and all enquiries must be sent by email to schooladmissions@wirral.gov.uk Information about school applications cannot be given out over the telephone. The team endeavours to respond to emails within 10 working days; please do not contact the team unless the 10 days has expired.

Advance notice of Portal downtime

The Portal is offline for routine maintenance between 12am (midnight) and 4 am each day. Please try again at another time.

The Portal is expected to be offline for scheduled maintenance for 24 hours on:
* 7th December 2023 * 3rd January 2024

Applying for a school place for young people who are already school age - In Year Transfers

There is a high volume of applications at this time of year and these are being processed in order of receipt. Information about school applications cannot be given out over the telephone.

In-year transfers can take up to four school weeks - this may be significantly longer if your transfer request requires an assessment for a selective school, or background information is required from your child's previous school. If you have moved house we may require proof of residence before your application can be processed. Applicants from overseas may be required to provide passports and visas. Schools cannot offer places directly to parents and all offers must be made by Wirral Council (except Upton Hall FCJ - see below).

**Transferring to a new school is a major decision and should not be taken lightly. If your child is offered a place at a new school and you then change your mind, it may not be possible for your child to return to their current/previous school. **

September start? If you are looking for a September start for your child's transfer, you can apply from the end of May onwards. Please note that whilst every effort will be made, it may not be possible to offer a place to your child for a "first day back" September start if the application is received in July or August. This is because schools are closed for the summer break and decisions may not be obtained until they return. In this situation your child should continue to attend their current school if possible.

Year 7 transfers - Requests for an in-year transfer for Year 7 pupils will not be accepted until after October half-term unless you have moved into Wirral.

Important - Requests for existing secondary age children to transfer into Upton Hall School FCJ in Year 7 or above must be made directly to the school. Note that the school will continue to share information with the Wirral Admissions team including that an application has been made, and the outcome of that application. If you wish to apply for other secondary schools, you will need to submit two applications, one to Upton Hall FCJ and another using this Portal for the other secondary schools. This does not affect children due to start Year 7 in Se September 2024 - these applications MUST still be made direct to Wirral Council.

Foundation 2 places - September 2024 (children born between 01/09/2019 and 31/08/2020)

The Wirral Citizen Portal opened on 1st September 2023 for applications to start primary or infant school in September 2023. It closes at midnight on 15th January 2024. If you are resident in another English Authority, you must apply through that Authority even if you want to give Wirral schools as a preference. Applicants from outside England, including Scotland and Wales, can apply using the Wirral application form. If you move address after 15th January 2024, you need to send an email to primaryplaces@wirral.gov.uk giving your child's name, date of birth and the new address. Parents/carers must inform the Council immediately of a change of address, even if details of a future change of residency were included on the application form. Verified address changes received/taking place after 28th February will not be used in relation to the allocation of school places but may be used in correspondence. We may remove a place where it has been identified that a change of address has taken place before 28th February and has not been declared.

Allocation day is 16th April 2024 - online applicants will be sent an email and the Portal will be available to view-only. Children will automatically be added to the continuing interest list for any higher preference schools that were not able to offer a place. To request to go onto the continuing interest list for a school that was not originally given as a preference or was a lower ranked preference, send an email to primaryplaces@wirral.gov.uk with the child's name, date of birth and the request details. Parents whose child is not on a continuing interest list or have not lodged a formal appeal (see Wirral website for details) by 31st May 2024 will be assumed to have accepted the offered place.

Deferred Entry for Summer Born children (1st April to 31st August)

Requests for a full year deferral into Foundation 2 should be submitted in writing to primaryplaces@wirral.gov.uk by 15th January giving your child's name, date of birth, the reasons for the request and the name of the school you would be intending to apply for. The Admissions team will contact the school to ask if they would agree in principle to the request. Agreement in principle does not guarantee a place would be offered in future, the place is not held. Parents need to re-apply the following year and the school's admissions criteria would be applied to decide if a place could be offered. Please speak to the school about your concerns about starting Foundation 2 prior to requesting a full-year deferral. Parents should consider that they may need to re-apply for a deferred entry on transfer to secondary school - secondary schools can insist that children go straight into Year 8 not Year 7. Children who have deferred entry to Foundation 2 are also only entitled to two years of post-16 education, rather than three.

Address Changes

You can change your address in the Portal prior to submitting the application by going to "My Account" to change your own address, or to "My Family" to change your child's address. For Year 7 and F2 applicants, if you move house before the application deadline, simply amend your details and resubmit the application before the application deadline. Once the application window has closed, you will also need to send an email to schooladmissions@wirral.gov.uk with your child's name, date of birth and the new address. Proof of residence may be requested from you. Deadlines apply for verified address changes to be submitted. Parents/carers must inform the Council immediately of a change of address, even if details of a future change of residency were included on the application form. Supporting evidence may be requested. Proof of residency received or taking place after the relevant deadline will not be used to assign a higher criterion for admission on the offer date but may be used for correspondence and in relation to the continuing interest lists after national offer date. We may remove a place where it has been identified that a change of address has taken place before the relevant deadline and has NOT been declared. Address changes will require supporting evidence.

Secondary Places - September 2024

The Portal opened for Year 7 2024 applications on 1st September 2023 and closed at midnight on 31st October 2023. After this date you would need to complete a late paper application form which will be available on the main Wirral website. If you are resident in another English Authority, you must apply through that Authority even if you want to give Wirral schools as a preference. Applicants from outside England, including Scotland and Wales, can apply using the Wirral application form.

If you have requested that your child is assessed for entry to a grammar school in September, don't apply until you have had the outcome of the assessments. Preferences for a grammar school where the child has not reached the standard will be withdrawn, this does not affect your right to an appeal to Independent Appeal Panel after 1st March 2024. Children with a late assessment should still apply by 31st October giving at least 1 grammar school as a preference.

Parents/carers must inform the Council immediately of a change of address, even if details of a future change of residency were included on the application form. Verified address changes received/taking place after 31st December will not be used in relation to the allocation of school places but may be used in correspondence. We may remove a place where it has been identified that a change of address has taken place before 31st December and has not been declared. Changes of address in relation to the continuing interest list will require supporting evidence; please send these via email. We may request further information from you.

Allocation day is 1st March 2024. Online applicants will receive an email and can also view the allocation on the Portal. Children will automatically be added to the continuing interest list for higher preference school(s) where the school was not able to offer a place. To request to go onto the continuing interest list for a school that was not originally given as a preference or was a lower ranked preference, send an email to secondaryplaces@wirral.gov.uk giving the child's name and date of birth and the school(s), by 15th March. The deadline for submitting a formal appeal is 31st March 2024. Parents whose child is not on a continuing interest list or have not lodged a formal appeal (see Wirral website for details) by 31st March 2024 will be assumed to have accepted the offered place.

Selective assessments for 2024 entry

Registration opened on 1st May 2023 and closed on 31st May 2023. The Citizen Portal is NOT used to register for the selective assessments. Please see the main Wirral Admissions website.** No arrangements will be made to assess children as a late applicant unless they have moved from another part of the country or overseas. Children who are unable to take the assessment day in September 2023 due to illness or absence will be invited to an assessment session later in the Autumn term. Registration for the Catholic grammar schools (Upton Hall FCJ or St Anselms College) is directly with the school itself. Please contact them for details.

Before applying for school places, you are advised to read the relevant information for parents, which is available online.

Children with an EHCP or being assessed for an EHCP

If your child already has an EHCP, you can use the Portal to register an interest in mainstream schools only - special schools are not on the Portal. The Council's SEND team will discuss your child's destination school as part of an EHCP review during Year 6.

If your child is being assessed for an EHCP, it is important that you apply for a primary or secondary school place on the Portal. If an EHCP is put in place, the destination school will be part of the Plan, which may override the preferences on the application..

Two Year Old Funding applications should be made the term before your child would be due to start. For more information please see www.wirral.gov.uk/freechildcare Please direct any queries about 2 year old funding to fis@wirral.gov.uk

If you are having trouble accessing the Portal, there are some hints below which may help you.

Common support issues
Below are the answers to some common enquiries which may help.

Password reset emails - If you have not received your password reset email within 20 minutes, please check your junk or spam folders. Otherwise, you may not be registered. Try and register as a new account - if you are already registered, the system will tell you.

Getting the message "System Unavailable"? This actually means that you've used the wrong email address, so please try again. There is a known issue with some devices (e.g. Samsung) where auto-complete adds an extra space to the end of the email address. Please try entering the email address with and without the extra space.

Password rules - make sure your password has at least 10 characters including at least 1 UPPER case letter, two numbers, and a "special character" such as an exclamation mark - ! - Some special characters are not allowed, including £, # and %

Can't find the school you want to apply for? - Take out anything you've typed into the "postcode" box and then start typing the school name into the search box.

Says registration was not successful as "Postcode is required" - search using your postcode, select the full address from the drop down list, then click on the address once more to finally confirm. On some mobile devices, the drop down arrow goes off to the right hand side of the screen - try rotating your display to landscape if you can't see the arrow.

Changing your details - After registration, to change your child's details, go to "My Family". To change your own details as the applicant, go to "My Account". This includes a change of address.

Can't select button as footer text overlays it - On a laptop/computer change the zoom to 67%. On iPhone/iPad (Safari) click on the small a in Aa to zoom out. On an Android phone in the settings, change the Default Aa display to Large Display. Afterwards remember to zoom back to normal size or change the default display back to standard.

Otherwise, if you are unable to reset your password, cannot remember your email address or have another technical issue, please send an email to schooladmissions@wirral.gov.uk giving as much detail as possible about your problem, including your child's name and date of birth. The Council's Transaction Centre can assist with most general school admission queries - call 0151 606 2000 during office hours. Password resets or email change requests cannot be made over the phone.