Westminster Secondary School Admissions: Apply by 31 Oct

Westminster secondary school admissions for September 2027 close at 11.59pm on Saturday 31 October 2026, and if you are filling in a paper form it has to reach the council’s Admissions Team by 5pm on the same day. Your child is in the round if they were born between 1 September 2015 and 31 August 2016.

That is five weeks away, and there is a fact in the council’s own brochure that should change how you fill the form in: in 2026, six of Westminster’s ten secondary schools offered a place to every applicant who named them. The competition in this borough is concentrated in a handful of schools, and knowing which ones changes the calculation entirely.

The dates that matter

Apply through the pan-London eAdmissions site, which is the council’s recommended route. You can name up to six schools, in any London borough, and you can change or delete your preferences right up to the deadline. Paper applicants will not get their result until the morning of 2 March, a day behind everyone else.

If you apply late without a good reason, your application is only considered after national offer day and your child goes onto waiting lists behind everyone who applied on time. The council is explicit that a primary school forgetting to remind you, a late return from a family holiday, or a form lost in the post are not accepted reasons.

Which Westminster schools are actually competitive

This is the part the application form does not tell you. These figures are from the council’s own 2027 brochure, showing how places were offered on national offer day in 2026.

Offered a place to every applicant in 2026:

• Harris Academy St John’s Wood (482 applications)
• Marylebone Academy (192 applications)
• Pimlico Academy (427 applications)
• St Augustine’s CE High School (292 applications)
• Westminster Academy (389 applications)
• Westminster City School (251 applications)

Oversubscribed, with places decided on distance or banding:

• The Grey Coat Hospital, 901 applications. Open places went to 6 offers in the top band, reaching 0.254 of a mile, and 10 in the middle band, reaching 0.147 of a mile. One offer in the lower band, on an exceptional needs criterion, with none made to siblings or on distance.
• The St Marylebone CE School, 906 applications. Open places by band reached between 0.487 of a mile and 1.052 miles.
• St George’s Catholic School, 617 applications. 118 offers to baptised practising Catholics, with the Other Christians category reaching 2.298 miles.
• Paddington Academy, 718 applications in the 2025 round, which is the most recent figure the brochure publishes for this school. 73 sibling offers, 12 to pupils at feeder school Wilberforce, and 87 on distance up to 0.519 of a mile.

Read the two CE schools’ numbers carefully. An open place at Grey Coat in 2026 meant living within roughly a quarter of a mile. If you are outside that and not eligible under a faith criterion, naming it first costs you nothing under the equal preference system, but you need the other five preferences to be realistic.

Nobody won an appeal

Across the schools that publish appeal figures in the brochure, the pattern is consistent. The St Marylebone CE School heard 20 appeals in 2025 and 20 in 2024, none upheld. Paddington Academy heard four in 2025 and six in 2024, none upheld. Pimlico Academy heard two in 2024, none upheld. Westminster Academy heard one in 2024, not upheld. Several schools report no appeals at all in the last three years.

That is not a reason to skip an appeal if you have real grounds. It is a reason to put your effort into the six preferences now rather than banking on the panel in June.

If you are weighing schools on results rather than distance, our coverage of Westminster’s GCSE results and A-level results this summer is the place to start.

The tests and extra forms you have to book separately

Four schools need something beyond the eAdmissions form, and three of those have a test date already fixed.

• The Grey Coat Hospital: banding test Tuesday 8 December. Supplementary Information Form direct to the school by 31 October. There is also a separate languages aptitude test for the 15 language places, which are awarded on the language test alone, though those applicants must sit the banding test too.
• The St Marylebone CE School: banding test Saturday 14 November, morning, and all applicants must attend. Places are split across four ability bands.
• Westminster City School: banding test Saturday 14 November at 9.30am. Supplementary Information Form to the school by 31 October.
• St Augustine’s CE High School: Supplementary Information Form and a Clergy Form, both direct to the school by 31 October.
• St George’s Catholic School: Supplementary Information Form direct to the school by 31 October.

Miss a supplementary form and your child is simply assessed outside the faith criteria, which at St George’s and Grey Coat is where most of the places go.

Open events still to come

Most Westminster schools front-load their open events into late September and early October. These are the dates in the council’s brochure that have not yet passed.

This week

• St Augustine’s CE High School: open mornings Wednesday 24 and Friday 25 September, 9.15am to 10am. (Wednesday 23 September has gone.)
• Paddington Academy: open morning Thursday 24 September, 9am to 10am.

Next week

• Westminster Academy: open evening Tuesday 29 September, 4.30pm to 6.30pm. Register on the school’s website.
• Pimlico Academy: open evening Wednesday 30 September, 4.15pm to 7pm.
• Harris Academy St John’s Wood: open evening Thursday 1 October, 5pm to 7pm.
• Marylebone Academy: open evening Thursday 1 October, 5pm to 7pm. Register at maryleboneschool.org.
• Paddington Academy: open morning Thursday 1 October, 9am to 10am.

October

• Pimlico Academy: open mornings Monday 5, Tuesday 6, Monday 12 and Tuesday 13 October, 9am to 10am.
• Harris Academy St John’s Wood: open morning Tuesday 6 October, 9am to 10am.
• Marylebone Academy: open mornings Tuesday 6 and Thursday 8 October, 9am to 10am.
• St George’s Catholic School: open day Tuesday 6 October, 4pm to 6.30pm, and open mornings Tuesday 6, Thursday 8 and Friday 9 October, 9.15am to 10.45am.
• Westminster City School: open evening Tuesday 6 October, 5pm to 7pm.
• Paddington Academy: open evening Thursday 8 October, 5pm to 7pm.
• Westminster Academy: open mornings Wednesday 7 and Thursday 15 October, 9.45am to 10.50am.

The St Marylebone CE School’s open events ran from 11 to 17 September and have passed. Contact the school directly if you still want to visit.

One thing to factor in when you visit: the council withdrew free school meals at Key Stage 3 this year, which changes the cost of a Westminster secondary place for some families.

Dates and times come from the council’s brochure published in August 2026. Confirm with the school before travelling, and check whether they want you to register.

How to use your six preferences

Westminster operates under the pan-London co-ordinated scheme and the equal preference system. That means every school you name considers your child against its own criteria without knowing where you ranked it. Naming an ambitious school first does not damage your chances at the others.

What it does mean is that the six slots are the only protection you have. Given the 2026 figures, a sensible Westminster list mixes at least one or two of the schools that offered every applicant a place with whichever competitive schools you are genuinely in range for. A list of six oversubscribed schools, all outside your distance, is how families end up allocated to a school none of them named.

Two other points worth knowing. Westminster shares a border with several boroughs and you can name schools in any of them on the same form, which materially widens the realistic list for families in the north and west of the city. And children born outside the 1 September 2015 to 31 August 2016 window but currently in Year 6 have to contact the Admissions Team to have their eAdmissions account authorised for an out-of-year application before they can submit.

Who to ask

The council’s Admissions Team takes calls on 020 7745 6433, weekdays 9am to 2pm, and emails at schooladmissions@westminster.gov.uk. They will send a paper form on request.

The full 59-page brochure, which carries every school’s oversubscription criteria in detail, is on the council’s starting secondary school from September 2027 page, and applications are made at eadmissions.org.uk.

Frequently asked questions

What is the deadline for Westminster secondary school admissions? 11.59pm on Saturday 31 October 2026 for online applications through eAdmissions, and 5pm on the same day for paper forms reaching the council’s Admissions Team. Supplementary Information Forms for the faith schools are due direct to those schools by the same date.

How many schools can I put on the form? Six, and they can be in any London borough, not only Westminster. You can change or remove preferences at any point up to the deadline.

Does putting a school first make any difference? Not to that school’s decision. Under the equal preference system each school assesses your child against its own criteria without seeing your ranking. Order only decides which offer you receive if more than one school would admit your child, in which case you get the highest-ranked of them.

When do we find out? National offer day is 1 March 2027. Online applicants get an email that evening; paper applicants are notified the following morning. You then have until 15 March to accept or decline.

What if we miss the 31 October deadline? A late application without a valid reason is only considered after national offer day, and your child joins waiting lists behind on-time applicants. If there is an exceptional reason, such as having just moved into the area, an application made by 8 December 2026 may still be considered alongside the on-time ones. Contact the Admissions Team as soon as possible.

Which Westminster secondary schools are hardest to get into? On the 2026 figures, The Grey Coat Hospital and The St Marylebone CE School, which each drew over 900 applications and filled open places within roughly half a mile or less depending on band. St George’s Catholic School and Paddington Academy were also oversubscribed. The other six schools offered a place to every applicant.

Is it worth appealing if we do not get the school we want? Appeal if you have genuine grounds, but go in with your eyes open: across the Westminster schools that publish figures, no appeal was upheld in 2024 or 2025. The waiting lists, which open from 24 March, move more often than panels do.

Dates, figures and contact details taken from Westminster City Council’s secondary school admissions brochure for 2027, published August 2026, and the council’s admissions page, last updated 18 September 2026. Always confirm details with the council or the school before acting on them.