Nearly 24,000 Northern Ireland pupils will be informed of the outcome of their application for a post-primary school place.
Parents will receive notification of their child’s placement via an email on Saturday morning, May 21.
Parents will still be able to login to Education Authority ’s Post-Primary Admissions Portal to view their original application alongside the outcome.
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The portal will also allow parents to apply to the appeals process and supply additional school placement preferences, if required.
This is the second year that post-primary applications have been processed via EA’s online portal, with the authority saying additional improvements have been made to deliver an efficient and user-friendly experience.
Commenting on this year’s process, Assistant Director for the Education Authority Frances Meehan said: "We appreciate the excitement and nervousness many families will be feeling in the lead up to Saturday and we are working hard to implement further improvements to ensure the process is as simple and efficient as possible.
"Our admissions team will be available on Saturday morning to provide support and advice to families via our dedicated helpdesk, which will be open from 9am – midday.
“It’s also important to reassure parents and carers of work underway to secure placements for children with a statement of special educational needs.
"This process is managed separately to ensure a suitable placement for each child to cater to their individual needs. Parents will be contacted directly by their SEN Link Officer with an update on their child’s school place by 10 June 2022.”
Here is a handy guide for parents:
Do all parents find out the outcome online?
If you submitted an application through the online Post-Primary Application an email will be issued to you on the morning of Saturday, 21 May 2022 notifying you of the outcome of your child’s application.
If you applied using a paper application and did not supply an email address, you will be notified of your outcome by post on 21 May 2022.
Appeals process
If your child has been refused a place in Year 8 in a Post Primary School or Year 11 in a Senior High School, you can appeal the decision of the Board of Governors.
Independent Admissions Appeal Tribunals are established by the Education Authority to consider appeals. You can only make an appeal if you feel the published Admissions Criteria of the school has not been correctly applied.
The Tribunal Panel will decide if a school has correctly applied its admissions criteria in deciding to refuse your child admission to the school. Tribunals cannot uphold an appeal on any other grounds. The actual substance of the criteria cannot be challenged in the appeal tribunal.
Information which was not made available to the school at the time when decisions were made will not be taken into account at appeal.
What to do if you are considering appealing a school's decision?
Follow the below steps if you are considering making an appeal against a school’s decision:
1. Contact the school to discuss why your child’s application was not selected.
2. Read the appeals information carefully.
3. Prepare your appeal documents.
4. Upload document(s) to your online appeal form
5. Submit form by closing date below.
6. You will receive a confirmation email on submission of the form.
Further information can be found HERE.
Where can I find more help?
EA’s Admissions Helpdesk will open on Saturday 21 st May from 9am to 12pm and will reopen again on Monday at 9am. Support can be request via email: postprimaryadmissions@eani.org.uk or by phone: 02895 985595.
Parents of children with a statement of special educational needs who require further information are encouraged to contact their Link Officer directly or the SEN Helpline which is open Monday – Friday from 9am – 5pm on 028 9598 5960. Further information is available on our website: https://www.eani.org.uk/parents/special-educational-needs-sen/sen-contact-details
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