Guide to starting school or moving up to junior school

Last updated: 13 September 2023

Changing your preferences

In exceptional circumstances (for example, if you move house), you might find that you need to change the schools you originally listed in your child’s application.

If you need to change your preferences, be realistic in your expectations.

You can use the ‘Find my child a school place’ service to check any school details and view the allocation information to find out which schools still have places. Other local authorities will have information about the allocations for schools in their area on their websites.

You can contact us between 22 May and 28 May to tell us about any changes you would like us to include for the third round. Do not contact us about changes before 22 May.

For later allocation rounds, view the deadlines for preference changes for inclusion in the third and later rounds.

How to make a change

If you decide to make changes, you need to send us your new list of preferences using our contact us form.

New preferences and changes of preference order will only be considered from the third allocation round. This list replaces the schools listed in your child’s original application.

You can include original preferences amongst any new ones as long as the order is clear. If you list schools outside Buckinghamshire, we'll let the relevant local authority know.