Delight or disappointment
On Monday, 1 March, parents across England find out which secondary school their child has got into for the start of the new academic year in September. For some parents, the place their child is offered is a blessed relief, for others it is the beginning of hand-wringing, sleepless nights and a possible appeal to the respective admissions authority.
This can be a stressful time for parents and naturally, children too find concerns about their secondary education will play on their minds.
The Good Schools Guide is here to help.
We operate an appeals consultancy service run by experienced state education consultants. To learn more about this service and how much it costs, click here.
We have also produced a free booklet for parents who would like some advice and are considering appealing their child's school offer. The booklet contains a list of recommendations of what to do after receiving an unsatisfactory school offer, a description of legitimate grounds for appeal, details of the appeals process and recent data showing appeals success rate accross England. Sign up below to instantly receive it by email.

Didn't get the school you wanted? Sign up to receive a pdf of our advice booklet.
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Need help?
Perhaps you suspect your child has some learning difficulty and you would like advice on what you should do. Or perhaps it is becoming clear that your child's current school is not working for him or her, and you need help to find a mainstream school which has better SEN provision, or to find a special school which will best cater for your child's area of need. Our SEN consultancy team advises on both special schools, and the mainstream schools with good SEN support, from reception through to the specialist colleges for 19+.
Special Educational Needs Index
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The British guide to great universities from Harvard to Hong Kong.
We tell you how to choose, how to apply, how to pay.
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Corona Virus
As a result of the coronavirus outbreak, The Good Schools Guide International offers the following guidance:
Determine the global situation and that of individual countries on government mandated school closures by accessing the UNESCO information on this link: https://en.unesco.org/themes/education-emergencies/coronavirus-school-closures.
For updates on the medical situation, go to the World Health Organisation website at https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/situation-reports.
If you wish to contact one of our GSGI listed schools to discover their current status or any plans for alternate learning strategies, please go to our database to find email and phone numbers for each school https://www.goodschoolsguide.co.uk/international-search.
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At specialist music, dance or performing arts schools, the arts aren't optional extras. They’re intrinsic to the school curriculum. Students are expected to fit in high level training and hours of practice alongside a full academic provision.
It's a lot to ask any child to take on, but for those with exceptional performing ability this kind of education can be transformative.
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There are currently around 163 state funded grammar schools located in 36 English local authorities, with around 167,000 pupils between them. There are a further 69 grammar schools in Northern Ireland, but none in Wales or Scotland. Almost half of these are in what are considered 'selective authorities' (eg Kent and Buckinghamshire), where around one in five local children are selected for grammar school entry based on ability. The others are areas such as Barnet or Kingston, with only a few grammar schools.
How to find a state grammar school
Word of warning: not all selective grammar schools have…