Milestones: starting Reception, moving to Year 7, SATs and GCSEs

Four points in a school life come with their own paperwork, deadlines and a letter that says "important". Each is manageable if it is in the calendar a term before it matters. These are the four, with the dates for 2026/27.

Starting Reception (September 2027)#

Apply by 15 January 2027 through your council's admissions page, even if the school is at the end of your road and your older child is there already. Offers arrive on 16 April 2027. You can list several schools; list them in the order you want them, because the council allocates by your order, not by the school's.

Before September: the school will send a welcome pack in May or June with a stay-and-play session, a home visit or a parents' meeting, a uniform list (from September 2026 no more than three branded items), and the start date. Reception often starts a day or two after the rest of the school, and sometimes with half days for the first week or two. Put all of it in the calendar when the pack arrives.

Worth asking: whether they do a staggered start and for how long; whether the school runs its own wraparound care or uses a provider; how they send letters (this is the moment to give them one address).

Moving to Year 7 (September 2027)#

Apply by 31 October 2026. This is the deadline that catches families out, because it falls six weeks into Year 6 and feels early. Open days are in September and early October, often on weekday evenings, and are worth going to because the school you assumed is not always the school you want. Offers arrive on 1 March 2027, with a short window to accept and a right to appeal.

Before September: a transition day in late June or July, when Year 6 visit for a day; a parents' evening at the new school; a uniform list; and a flurry of forms (medical, photo consent, data). Secondary schools run on Arbor, MCAS or similar, and their emails start before September. Get the second email address in early.

Worth asking: which bus and what it costs; how homework is set and where you see it; who to contact and how, because the form teacher is not the person the office writes from.

SATs (Year 6, 10 to 13 May 2027)#

Four days of tests: grammar, punctuation and spelling on Monday, reading on Tuesday, maths on Wednesday and Thursday. Results go to schools on 6 July 2027 and to you shortly after, as scaled scores where 100 is the expected standard.

What the school will ask: for children to be in every day that week, on time, with breakfast; for no holidays booked; sometimes for a breakfast club that week, which the school usually runs free.

What matters: sleep and calm. The scores inform the secondary school's setting in Year 7 and are not carried on a record. Revision guides exist and the school will say if it recommends one; it will not recommend a tutor, and for most children one is not needed.

GCSEs (Year 11, 10 May to 18 June 2027)#

Exams run from Monday 10 May to Friday 18 June 2027, with a contingency day in late June that every student must be available for. Results day is Thursday 19 August 2027.

Before it starts: the school issues each student's personal timetable in the spring; it is the single most important document of the year, and a photo of it in the family calendar is the difference between a calm May and a frantic one. Mock exams in November or December and again in February or March give the shape of it early.

What the school will ask: exam-year fees for some qualifications (music, drama), a revision guide list, attendance at revision sessions, and quiet at home. Study leave varies by school; ask when it starts.

Worth asking: how results are collected and whether your child can pick them up in person; what sixth form or college applications are due and when (many close in January or February of Year 11).

Getting the dates in#

Every date on this page is either national or in a letter the school sends once. Put the national ones in now; put the school's ones in the day the letter arrives. If you forward the letter to something that pulls the dates out for you, that is one less thing. See what Bobbie can read.

Further reading#

• Term dates, INSET days and the dates schools spring on you
• School money without the surprises

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Sources: GOV.UK primary assessments future dates; Third Space Learning, GCSE exam dates 2027; School Atlas, admissions timeline 2026/27; Catchment, school application deadlines 2026-2027.