Admissions FAQs

Houlton School is a ‘Free School’, which means that we are an independent academy, not controlled by the Local Authority. We belong to the Transforming Lives Educational Trust (TLET) and our funding comes directly from central government. Therefore, whilst our pupils enjoy enhanced, state-of-the-art facilities, there are no fees to pay for parents/carers to access our provision. Our admissions criteria, including what happens when we are oversubscribed, are contained within our Admissions Policy for the relevant year of entry.

You should apply for your school place through your home local authority's Common Application Form (usually an online portal).

The national deadline for applications for 2025-26 entry is 31 October 2024. Applications are considered according to each school’s admissions criteria and not the order received, provided your application is on time. For information about late applications received after the national deadline, please see your local authority’s website as arrangements can vary.

Houlton School is a ‘Free School’, which means that we are an independent academy, not controlled by the Local Authority. We belong to the Transforming Lives Educational Trust (TLET) and our funding comes directly from central government. Therefore, whilst our pupils enjoy enhanced, state-of-the-art facilities, there are no fees to pay for parents/carers to access our provision. Our admissions criteria, including what happens when we are oversubscribed, are contained within our Admissions Policy for the relevant year of entry.

Full details of how to apply can be found here.

Houlton School has been created so that it will ultimately serve its immediate geographical community, which over the next 14 years will grow to include more than 6,000 new homes. We have two smaller-than-average priority areas and beyond these, the distance from our campus ‘as the crow flies’ becomes the major factor in securing a place, regardless of home local authority. As Houlton grows, there will be two further new primary schools in addition to our current priority area schools of St Gabriel’s and Clifton-upon-Dunsmore primary schools. Therefore, an entrance examination, which often leads to families travelling long distances to school, does not accord with our mission to become a local school for local families, minimising the environmental impact of school travel.

There are no plans to introduce any academic or aptitude tests for entry to Houlton School – we want local children to be able to access our state-of-the-art facilities and outstanding provision without the barrier of a high-stakes test at age 11.

Our admissions policy is available on our website here.

Houlton does have two, relatively small priority areas. Whilst the new Houlton development is in its infancy (only around 15% of the planned homes are currently built and occupied) we’re delighted to be able to welcome families from further afield outside of these priority areas. Each year, we will publish on this page the furthest distance an ‘on-time application’ place was offered purely on distance criteria (not including LAC, EHCP, sibling, staff claims etc.) to support parents’ decisions and judgements about the likelihood of gaining a place from their home address:

Y7 September 2021 entry:       180th place: 9.3 miles from our campus (waiting list 25)     Successful appeals to date: 0

Y7 September 2022 entry:       180th place: 4.4 miles from our campus (waiting list 75)     Successful appeals to date: 0

Y7 September 2023 entry:       180th place: 3.2 miles from our campus (waiting list 120)    Successful appeals to date: 0

Y7 September 2024 entry:       180th place: 2.8 miles from our campus (waiting list 140)    Successful appeals to date: 0

Y7 September 2025 entry:        Information will be published here from 1 March 2025.

The map below is for illustrative purposes only. For the most up-to-date, detailed interactive maps (on which you may zoom to see fine detail) please visit: https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/mapsecondaryschools

For on-time applications (September 2025 entry), you will be notified whether we have been able to offer a place at Houlton School on the National Offer Day of 1 March 2025 via email from the Local Authority.

Our published admissions number (PAN) is 180. Where fewer applications than our PAN are received, all on-time applications will be offered a place at Houlton School. Where we receive more than 180 applications, our over-subscription criteria will apply (see below). Houlton was founded in September 2021 and is growing one year group at a time. Therefore, we will have children in Year 7, 8, 9 and 10 only in 2024-25.

School Transport is the responsibility of your local authority – please visit www.warwickshire.gov.uk/schooltransport to find out whether you may be eligible for free school transport.

If you live outside of the immediate area, you will need to access public services or make private arrangements to get your child to school.

Pupils are expected on campus by 8.30am and the formal school day will finish at 3.10pm each day (with co-curricular clubs and the Study Support hub running until around 4.15pm each evening). Pupils will have five lessons/day organised over a two week timetable.  The timings of the school day are available at the footer of our Term Dates webpage.

Once you’ve secured a place with us, we’ll visit your child’s current school, work with staff to understand the support they have received during the primary phase and plan the nature of the support that will be appropriate in the secondary phase for them.

Houlton School is an independent, free school academy that offers mainstream, classroom-based education; there is no specialist, resourced provision nor special classroom arrangements available. Therefore, in line with the Code of Practice, we will offer reasonable adjustments in support of pupils accessing our mixed-attainment mainstream classes, which have a minimum of 30 pupils per class. If your child has an EHCP that provides an additional, personal budget, they may have access to some support from a Teaching Assistant.

Our SEND local offer is available to view on this website.

Should you have any further unanswered questions, please email hello@houltonschool.org.uk and we’ll get back to you as quickly as we can.