Apply for a nursery school place

You can apply for a nursery school place for September 2024, if your child was born between 1 September 2020 and 31 August 2021.

Your child can attend nursery either in the mornings or the afternoons or the option of 30 hours and flexi time is available at some nurseries. You can let us know which option is suitable for you during your application.

Immediate nursery school places

If you need a nursery school place for the current academic year please contact the nursery school directly.

Apply

To apply for a nursery school place for September 2024 you will need to

  • complete the application form via the button below
  • email the nursery school you have applied to and provide documents to support your application. If you do not provide the required documents, your application may not be processed.

Please use the button below to fill in an application form, unless you are applying to Heathland nursery school  or Whitefriars nursery school who have their own forms. 

Apply for a nursery school place

Closing date for applications

The closing date for applications to be processed in the main round is 15 January 2024. Any applications submitted after 15 January 2024 are considered late and will be processed after 15 March 2024. If you want to submit a late application, please complete the application form.

Receiving the outcome of your application

If you submitted your application before 15 January 2024, you will receive a letter advising of the outcome of your application on 15 March 2024.

If you made a late application, after 15 January 2024, the nursery school will contact you with the outcome. If you do not receive an outcome from the nursery school within a couple of weeks of submitting the application, please contact the nursery directly.

Unsuccessful applications

We will let you know in writing if  we are unable to offer you a place at the nursery that you applied for. We also add you child to the waiting list for that nursery.

The nursery will also inform you that your child can be added to the waiting list for any other nursery from that date.

Waiting lists are maintained in priority order using the admissions criteria. As vacancies occur places will be offered from the waiting list in order of priority.

Information about any offers will be shared across nurseries. This ensures that each child is only allocated one nursery place.

Admissions criteria

If more applications are received than there are places in a nursery, places will be offered to children in the following order:

  • A 'looked after child' or a child who was previously looked after but immediately after being looked after became subject to adoption, care arrangements or special guardianship order, including those who appear to the admissions authority to have been in a state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.
  • Children referred by Harrow’s Special Educational Needs Assessment and Review Service
  • Sibling link - children with a brother or sister attending the linked primary, infant or junior school at the time of the admission
  • All other children

If there are more children than remaining places, the nursery will offer them to those who live closest. The distance is measured in a straight line from your home to the centre point of the school site.

Multiple applications

You may only complete one application form for each child. 

If you would like to make an application to a different nursery, you will need to email the nursery you first applied to and cancel the application. You will need to give your child’s name and date of birth in the email. You will then be able to submit an application for another nursery. 

If more than one application is submitted, resulting in more than one place being offered, only the latest application will be valid. Any offers resulting from earlier applications will be withdrawn.

Transferring from nursery to reception class

Please note: getting a place in a nursery class doesn't guarantee a place at reception in that school. You must make a separate application for reception class. You may need to plan for and prepare your child for changing school.