Moving up to Secondary school

At the age of 11 your child will move to Secondary school. You must make an application for the Secondary School of your choice, there is no automatic transfer from a primary to a secondary school. When your child is in the last year of primary school, you will receive a notification during the Autumn term with information on all Secondary schools in the county and how to apply.

There is no link between the Primary and Secondary schools you can apply for any Secondary school in the County. The application is based on your home address and not the primary school attended. Your primary school may organise taster days at the local Secondary school but we would recommend you visit any school that you are applying for. Your children have the opportunity to learn through either Welsh or English and each school has its own language category. Please refer to the Information for Parents handbook for additional guidance.

If you are considering sending your child to St John Lloyd Catholic School in Llanelli, in addition to applying via this website, parents are asked to complete the school paper application form as well.

When to apply

If your child was born between: 1st September 2009 - 31st August 2010 they could start secondary school in September 2021. The deadline for applications is 18 December 2020.

If you miss the deadline you can still make a late application. There is no advantage to making an early application, it's just important that you apply on time! If you are applying for a school outside of the county please contact the relevant Local Authority.

How to apply

We only accept applications for Carmarthenshire schools and you can only apply online. You will need to provide the following information:

• Parent/guardians name* and address
• Parent/guardians email**
• Childs name, address and date of birth
• Choice of school – you can choose up to three schools in order of preference

* Anyone with parental responsibility must agree to this application before you submit it.
** If you don’t have an e-mail address you can’t apply online, please go to your local school and they will assist you with your application.

What happens next

You will receive an e-mail acknowledgement of your application where you can print a copy of the completed form for your records. All correspondence about your application will be sent via e-mail.

If your application was on time you will be notified on the 1^st March 2021. If your application was late it reduces your chances of getting a place. We will notify you as soon as possible but the application process takes up to eight weeks.

If you are offered a place you must accept or decline the place you’ve been offered by the date noted on the e-mail. If you don’t your place may be withdrawn. Once you’ve accepted your child’s place you MUST contact the school to agree a start date and for most children this would be in September.

We only refuse a child’s school place if the year you are applying for is full. However, if your child is refused a school place to any of your chosen secondary schools, there is a right to appeal against this decision. You will also need to inform us in writing if you wish your child's name to be kept on a waiting list until 30th September and if a place becomes available we’ll let you know. You can make a late application for other schools.

APPLY FOR A SECONDARY SCHOOL PLACE