Admissions Timetable
Appeals

Visiting the Academy

Our Open Events will take place in September and October this year. Please check back soon — dates will be shared here once confirmed! If you would like further information about the academy, please email [email protected] to arrange for a phone call from one of our academy staff or to arrange a visit to the academy.

Making your application

We hoped, like so many others, that you would have liked to join our school community in September 2025 and would have encouraged families to make Boston Spa Academy their first-choice preference when applying for your secondary school place. To make your application, please visit the Leeds City Council application page, which can be found using the following link: https://www.leeds.gov.uk/schools-and-education/school-admissions/apply-for-a-secondary-school

At Boston Spa Academy, we wholeheartedly appreciate the significance of the decision you face as a parent/carer when choosing a secondary school for your child. Naturally, as a parent/carer your child’s happiness, both now and in the future, will be forefront in your mind. We regard our parents and carers as equal partners in their child’s education, and we strive to work together to ensure a positive and valuable school experience that allows every individual student to thrive during their time with us.

Our focus is very much on empowering our students to develop their character to help them to grow into confident, kind and well-mannered young adults. At the same time, we cultivate a school environment that allows students to explore what excites them and fulfil their ambitions, both inside and outside the classroom.

We are a community of students from different backgrounds with different perspectives and life journeys. Each student’s aspirations will be nurtured and encouraged by our whole school community, and this includes our students who are on the Special Education Needs (SEN) Register. Students who require extra support will be given it through supportive structures, including access to additional pastoral support and curriculum that is personalised to meet their needs.

Shaping Character; Cultivating Ambition

Supporting our students to fulfil their ambitions is part of our vision, and we do this through access to outstanding academic excellence and nurturing the love of learning, as well as a rich and diverse extra-curricular programme. As well as access to traditional clubs and societies, our students can partake in activities such as the ‘BIG3’, our unique sporting programmes that include rowing, karate and volleyball. In September 2022, we enhanced this further with the opening of our £1.2m Performing Arts Centre.

Since Boston Spa Academy joined The GORSE Academies Trust in 2018, we have undergone significant, yet positive change which has been recognised by the local community and is reflected in the number of first choice applications we receive. Ultimately it remains our goal to have all children and young people attending their own local school and to see Boston Spa Academy serving the needs of children in Boston Spa itself and surrounding villages.

We encourage all prospective families to visit our academy during the school day to see our academy, our students and our staff in person. We are so excited about the future at Boston Spa Academy and determined to ensure that our school becomes a place from where young people of all abilities go on to lead great lives and fulfil their ambitions. We hope you are able to join us in our next stage of our future.

In-year applications to start at our school between September 2026 and July 2027 – read our 2026/27 policy.

Applications for Year 7 places in September 2027 – read our 2027/28 policy.

As an academy, we are part of The GORSE Academies Trust, who are the admission authority for the academy. The academy’s admission authority sets the admission policy every year. You can read our academy’s admission policies at the links above.

Admissions Timetable 2026
Deadline date for applications for Year 7 places in September 2026 31 October 2025
National Offers Day 2 March 2026
Deadline for accepting offers and first cut off for appeal forms 16 March 2026
Appeals held by Independent appeal panels May to July 2026
Appeal decision letters to be sent Within 5 working days from date of hearing wherever possible

If you are applying for a Year 7 place for September, all applications are made in advance. Offers are made by local authorities on national offer day. Our Published Admission Number is 240.

You must apply to the local authority who empties your bins. If this is Leeds, please go to www.leeds.gov.uk/apply.

You can also watch Leeds City Council schools’ admissions video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRU1SrS7iJE.

If you’re moving into Leeds or want to change schools in Leeds, you need to make a school transfer – often called an in-year application.

We are part of the Leeds coordinated in-year application scheme. This means you can apply for a place online using the Leeds in-year application form at Before you move schools (leeds.gov.uk). You can apply for places at our school and other Leeds schools at the same time on this form.

If you have moved house, please upload evidence of the house move with the online application. You can find out what you need to provide on the above website.

We offer places by applying our admission policy criteria to your child’s application. Leeds City Council will contact you with our decision no later than 15 school days from when you apply. If they cannot offer your child a place at our school, they will:

  • Add your child to our waiting list in case a place becomes available during the school year.
  • Send you a letter to explain the reasons we cannot offer a place and tell you how you can appeal.

Our waiting lists are kept until end of each school year. You will need to make a new application if you want to be on the waiting list for the following school year.

If you are not offered a place at the academy you requested, you will have the right of appeal. The appeal panel is independent of the academy and council and the decision is legally binding.

Before you appeal you:

Leeds City Council arranges our appeals and you can find the appeal form at School appeals (leeds.gov.uk)

If you are applying for a Year 7 place for September, you need to submit your appeal form by the above deadline to ensure the appeal will be heard before the summer holidays.

You can appeal because you want your child to attend a particular school. These are successful if the panel agree that the reasons for your appeal outweigh the school’s decision not to admit any more children.

Wanting your child to go to a school because you think it is the best one in the area is not likely to convince the panel that your child should get a place there.

For appeals the following rules apply:

You will receive at least 10 school days’ notice of the appeal hearing.

The best time to send evidence is with your appeal form. If you are unable to do this, please send all evidence at least 7 school days before the hearing. If evidence is received after this time the Independent Appeals Panel will decide whether this evidence can be heard or not.

Wherever possible the academy will send its evidence to you at least 7 days before the hearing.

Wherever possible a decision letter will be sent out to you within 5 school days of the hearing.

*School days are those days on which students are taught at the academy. They do not include, for example, school holidays or weekends.

Supplementary Information Form (SIF)

Admissions Policy for 2025-26

Admissions Policy for 2026-27

Admissions Policy for 2027-28

www.gov.uk

http://local.direct.gov.uk