Kent's deadline is 2 November, but Knole Academy's arts places close on 7 October and both grammar schools with Sevenoaks campuses still print 31 October.
Applications for Sevenoaks secondary school places starting in September 2027 are open, and Kent County Council gives one closing date for them: Monday 2 November 2026. For a family in Sevenoaks that date is not enough. Knole Academy shuts its expressive arts register almost four weeks earlier. Trinity School takes its faith form for a fortnight afterwards. Weald of Kent Grammar School wants its pupil premium and medical claims by 31 October, and both of the grammar schools that teach in Sevenoaks still print 31 October on their own pages as the deadline for the county form itself. Miss the right one and the school never considers you under the criterion you were counting on. This page sets out all five dates, what last year’s offers actually looked like at each local school, and the thing most parents here get wrong: you cannot ask for the Sevenoaks campus.
The quick answer
The county form closes on Monday 2 November 2026, and you can name four schools on it. Before that, Knole Academy’s expressive arts registration closes on Wednesday 7 October, which covers 24 of its 240 places and is the earliest date on the calendar. Kent Test results are emailed on Thursday 15 October. Weald of Kent Grammar School wants its pupil premium form and any medical claim by 31 October, and 40 of its 270 places are held for pupil premium applicants. Trinity School’s faith form runs to midnight on Sunday 15 November, two weeks after everything else. Both Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys and Weald of Kent teach in Sevenoaks on Seal Hollow Road, but neither lets you choose the campus: TWGSB splits its 300 places 210 at Tunbridge Wells and 90 at Sevenoaks after offer day, Weald measures every applicant’s distance to its Tonbridge site, and Weald’s policy says outright that there is no parental right of appeal against the campus allocated. Offers are emailed on Monday 1 March 2027 and you must accept or refuse by 15 March.
The 31 October problem
The national closing date for secondary applications is 31 October every year. In 2026 that falls on a Saturday, so Kent County Council has moved its deadline to the next working day, Monday 2 November 2026, and its secondary school places page says so plainly: applications “opened on Monday 1 September and close on Monday 2 November 2026”.
Two of the schools Sevenoaks families apply to have not followed it across. Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys lists “Saturday 31st October 2026: Deadline for secondary school application (SCAF) to KCC” in its own dates table, naming the day of the week. Weald of Kent Grammar School’s Year 7 page for 2027 entry gives “31 October 2026: Deadline to submit the Secondary Common Application Form (SCAF)”. Knole Academy and Trinity School both print 2 November.
Nothing turns on this if you apply early. It only matters if you are working to the last day, and then it works in your favour, because the earlier date is the safer one. Treat Saturday 31 October as your deadline. Weald’s own forms are due that day anyway, and you keep two clear days in hand on the county form.
You cannot apply for the Sevenoaks campus
This is the part that catches people out, and it catches them out after they have already applied.
There is no grammar school in Sevenoaks district with its own admission number. What there is, on Seal Hollow Road, is a campus of Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys and a campus of Weald of Kent Grammar School, both at TN13 3SN, on the same road as Trinity School.
Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys is explicit about how it works. Its published admission number is 300, “210 places at the Tunbridge Wells campus and 90 at Sevenoaks”. You name the school once on the county form, and the school says “we are one school and parents are unable to specify the campus they would prefer on the SCAF”. Kent County Council allocates 300 boys on 1 March; the school then assigns them to a campus using a distance calculation the council supplies for both sites, and emails parents the campus within a week of offer day. If your son is not put at the campus you wanted, you can ask to go on a waiting list for the other one.
Weald of Kent Grammar School goes further. Its 2027 policy sets the admission number at 270 girls and measures every applicant’s distance to a single Ordnance Survey point, TQ 59489 45217, on the Tonbridge campus. The policy then says the split between the two campuses “is an internal decision and not included in this policy”, decided each year by the school’s admissions committee, and that a campus form is sent out with the welcome letter once a place has already been offered. Its appeals section is blunt: “There is no parental right of appeal against the Campus allocated.”
So a girl in Sevenoaks town is ranked on how close she lives to Tonbridge, not to the school building at the end of Seal Hollow Road.
Weald’s parish list, and the part of the district it leaves out
Weald’s sixth oversubscription criterion, the distance one, applies to children living in named Tonbridge postcodes and parishes and in a specific list of Sevenoaks district parishes: Brasted, Chevening, Chiddingstone, Cowden, Dunton Green, Edenbridge, Godden Green, Halstead, Hever, Kemsing, Knockholt, Leigh, Otford, Penshurst, Riverhead, Seal, Sevenoaks town, Sevenoaks Weald and Underriver, Shoreham, Sundridge and Ide Hill, Westerham and Crockham Hill.
Criterion seven is “All other Postcodes”. Read the two together and the north of the district is not on the list: Swanley, Hextable, Crockenhill, New Ash Green, West Kingsdown, Horton Kirby, Eynsford and Farningham all fall into the lower band. If you live in one of those places, Weald is not the near-automatic option the Seal Hollow Road building makes it look.
The four Sevenoaks district deadlines that are not 2 November
Knole Academy, expressive arts: Wednesday 7 October
Knole Academy is an expressive arts school, and its admissions policy sets aside 10% of the Year 7 intake, 24 places out of 240, for children who show a particular aptitude for the performing or visual arts. Registration for that assessment closes on Wednesday 7 October 2026, nearly four weeks before the county form, and the school’s own admissions timetable is the only place the date appears. Knole also asks for a supplementary information form.
If your child is a strong musician, dancer, actor or artist, this is the earliest thing on the list and the one most likely to be missed. The school’s open day was Saturday 19 September, so that has gone; contact the academy directly for the registration form.
Weald of Kent, pupil premium and medical: 31 October
Weald holds 40 of its 270 places for children eligible for pupil premium, ranked among themselves by distance. Eligibility means registered for free school meals at any point in the last six years, which is a much wider group than families currently claiming, and it does not include infant free school meals that every child receives. The form goes to the school, not the council, and the policy gives the deadline as 31 October in the year of application. Any claim on exceptional medical grounds, which needs a written statement from a hospital consultant, is due to the school by the same date.
If those 40 places are not filled by pupil premium applicants on offer day, they pass down to the next criterion. Only a form sent in by 31 October puts you in the running for them.
Trinity School, faith places: midnight, Sunday 15 November
Trinity School takes 180 into Year 7 and is the local school where faith counts for most: its 2027 policy allocates up to 50% of the remaining places, after looked-after children and up to four staff children, to families attached to a Christian church. That is a far bigger share than any other local route, and it is the reason Trinity is worth a careful read rather than a glance.
The bar is higher than “we go to church”. The policy defines a Christian family as one where at least one parent or carer has attended a Christian church at least twice a month for at least two years up to the date of application, with the church minister confirming it on the form. Starting in October does not qualify you. The church must belong to Churches Together in Britain or Ireland or to the Evangelical Alliance, or otherwise show that its basis of faith accords with Trinitarian Christianity.
The form is completed online through the school’s own portal, not the county’s, and the deadline is midnight on Sunday 15 November 2026, a fortnight after the main closing date. The school warns that “any completed forms received after the deadline will not be considered for the first round of offers on National Offer Day”. Faith places and the open places that follow are both ranked on siblings first and then distance from the school, so a family that does not qualify on faith is not shut out; it is simply competing on how close it lives.
The school also makes a point worth repeating, because it changes how people fill the form in: the council coordinates the applications and individual schools are never told where they were ranked. Name your four schools in genuine order of preference. Putting a school first does not tell it anything, and putting a likely school second costs you nothing.
Kent Test results: Thursday 15 October
The test itself has already been sat, on 10 September for children at Kent primary schools and over the weekend of 12 and 13 September for everyone else. Results are emailed on Thursday 15 October 2026 to the address used at registration, and only to that address. If no email address was given, the result is posted first class on the same day, and the council says you can ask your child’s primary school for the scores the day after results go out.
Your child gets three standardised scores, for English, maths and reasoning, plus a total. Each score runs from 69 to 141, so the highest possible total is 423. For 2025 entry the grammar assessment threshold was a total of 332 or more with no single score below 108; the council says the 2026 threshold will be published in October. Kent’s own guidance describes grammar schools as providing for roughly the top 25% of the ability range.
A result that is not a grammar assessment does not stop you naming a grammar school. It does mean that preference will be refused on 1 March, at which point you get a right of appeal.
How hard is it? Last year’s offers, school by school
These are the figures from Kent County Council’s 2027 admissions guide for offer day in September 2026, the most recent full year. The applications column counts every preference of any rank, first to fourth, plus children with an education, health and care plan, so it is a measure of demand rather than of children competing for the place. The last column is the number of children the council had to place at the school because they got none of their four preferences.
| School | Intake | Preferences received | Offers made | Placed by the council |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Knole Academy, Sevenoaks | 240 | 934 | 240 | 0 |
| Trinity School, Sevenoaks | 180 | 799 | 180 | 0 |
| Orchards Academy, Swanley | 150 | 197 | 150 | 17 |
| Weald of Kent Grammar School | 300 | 994 | 300 | 0 |
| Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys | 300 | 1,179 | 300 | 0 |
| Wrotham School | 210 | 557 | 210 | 0 |
| Tonbridge Grammar School | 180 | 975 | 180 | 0 |
| Judd School, Tonbridge | 180 | 995 | 180 | 0 |
| Skinners' School, Tunbridge Wells | 160 | 885 | 160 | 0 |
Two things stand out. Every one of these schools filled its intake exactly, with no spare places and no shortfall, which is what a full district looks like. And Orchards Academy in Swanley is the only one where the council had to place children who had not named it: 17 of its 150, against 197 preferences in total. Everywhere else, the school was full on preferences alone.
Across Kent as a whole, 18,636 children were seeking a Year 7 place. 96.27% were offered one of the schools they had named and 78.96% got their first preference, which leaves about 695 children in the county offered a school they had not asked for. Naming all four preferences is the single cheapest thing you can do to stay out of that group.
After you apply
Applications are processed between 3 November 2026 and 28 February 2027. Offers are emailed on Monday 1 March 2027 to the address on the application, and can be viewed online. If you have changed email address since applying, keep access to the old one, because the council will not redirect an offer without approval from the original account.
You then have until Monday 15 March 2027 to accept or refuse. Refusing a place does not improve your position anywhere else; it just leaves you without one. Waiting lists and appeals both run from offer day, and for a grammar school you must have named it on the original form to appeal or join its list at all.
If your circumstances change after you have applied, the council asks you to email kentonlineadmissions@kent.gov.uk rather than start again.
Primary and junior places: the next round opens 6 November
If your child is due to start reception, or to move from an infant school to a junior school in Year 3, that is a separate application on a separate calendar. It opens on Friday 6 November 2026 and closes on Friday 15 January 2027, with three preferences rather than four, and offers on Friday 16 April 2027 after 4pm. Kent says there are no new free schools opening anywhere in the county in 2027, at either phase.
Frequently asked questions
What is the deadline for secondary school applications in Kent for 2027 entry?
Kent County Council’s deadline is Monday 2 November 2026, because the national date of 31 October falls on a Saturday. Two local grammar schools still print 31 October on their own pages, so the safe answer is to apply by Saturday 31 October.
Can I ask for the Sevenoaks campus of Weald of Kent or TWGSB?
No. Both schools are one school for admissions and the campus is decided after places are offered. TWGSB assigns campuses on distance to both sites and emails parents within a week of 1 March. Weald of Kent’s policy says there is no parental right of appeal against the campus allocated.
How many schools can I name on the Kent form?
Four for secondary, three for primary and junior. It is in your interest to use all of them. Naming one school does not give your child priority for it, and schools are never told what order you used.
My child did not take the Kent Test. Can we still apply to a grammar school?
Yes, but the application to that school will be refused on 1 March 2027. You then have the right to appeal and argue that grammar school is suitable for your child. If you move into Kent after the test, the council runs a separate assessment.
Which secondary schools are actually in Sevenoaks district?
Three mainstream state secondaries: Knole Academy on Bradbourne Vale Road and Trinity School on Seal Hollow Road, both in Sevenoaks town, and Orchards Academy in Swanley. Weald of Kent Grammar School and Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys both teach on Seal Hollow Road but are Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells schools for admissions.
Do I need a supplementary form?
Only for particular routes. Knole Academy asks for one, and separately for expressive arts registration by 7 October. Trinity School needs one, countersigned by your church minister, for a faith place by 15 November. Weald of Kent needs one for a pupil premium or medical place by 31 October. None of them replaces the county application, and sending one without the county form gets your child nothing.
Sources
- Kent County Council, secondary school places (opening and closing dates, four preferences, processing window, offer day)
- Kent County Council, Admission to secondary school in Kent 2027 (PDF: school details, and the September 2026 intake, preference, offer and allocation figures)
- Kent County Council, Kent Test results (results day, score ranges, the 2025 threshold of 332)
- Kent County Council, register for the Kent Test (test dates, the top 25% description)
- Kent County Council, primary school places (6 November to 15 January, three preferences, 16 April offers)
- Knole Academy, admissions (the 7 October expressive arts deadline and the 24 aptitude places)
- Trinity School, admission process Year 7 (the 15 November faith form deadline and the note on genuine preference order)
- Trinity School, admissions policy Years 7 to 11, 2027 intake (PDF: the 180 admission number, the 50% faith share and the two-year attendance definition)
- Weald of Kent Grammar School, admissions policy 2027 (PDF: 270 places, 40 pupil premium places, the parish list, the Tonbridge measuring point, campus allocation and appeal)
- Weald of Kent Grammar School, Year 7 2027 how to apply (the school’s 31 October date)
- Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys, Year 7 admissions (210 and 90 campus split, no campus preference, the school’s 31 October date)
Every date and figure here was read from the council’s pages or the school’s own admissions page on 24 September 2026. Schools occasionally move supplementary deadlines, so confirm with the school before you rely on one. Related: Kent school term dates and October half term in Sevenoaks.
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