London sixth-form application deadlines for September 2027: the ones that fall before Christmas

If your child is in Year 11, the application season for September 2027 sixth-form places has already started, and for some London schools it is nearly over. That surprises a lot of families, because the big secondary-school deadline everyone remembers, the council's Year 7 date, falls on 31 October and feels like the whole story. For sixth form it isn't: there is no council process, no single date, and the earliest windows close before the autumn mocks have even been marked.

The one-sentence answer

Sixth-form places are applied for directly to each school or college, each one sets its own deadline, and for September 2027 entry the earliest London deadlines we have verified fall on 30 October 2026 (an independent school's 16+ round) and 4 December 2026 at 9am (a selective state sixth form), while other providers set their own application windows.

This article covers England. It is a companion to our guide to how sixth-form admissions actually work, which explains conditional offers, oversubscription and appeals once you have applied.

Why sixth form is different from Year 7

For Year 7, the council runs a coordinated scheme: one form, one deadline, offers on one day. The 2027 Pan-London deadline is 31 October 2026 and it applies to every London borough and the seven surrounding authorities.

Sixth form works the other way round. GOV.UK's school-admissions guidance lists a "6th form place at a school or college" among the places you apply for directly, alongside private schools, rather than through the council's process. Each sixth form or college publishes its own form, its own window and its own entry requirements, and you can apply to as many as you like. A handful of areas outside London run a shared sixth-form portal (Sheffield's "Sheffield Progress" is the usual example), but in London it is school by school.

Two consequences follow. First, nobody will send you a reminder: the council's letters and texts cover Year 7, not Year 12. Second, deadlines are scattered across six months, so a shortlist of four schools can easily mean four different dates between October and March.

The verified 2027 dates

We checked each school's own 2027-entry admissions page. Only dates that appear on the school's own page for September 2027 entry are listed as deadlines; where a school has not yet published its 2027 window, we say so rather than guess from last year.

| School | Type | Applications close for September 2027 | What happens next | Source | |---|---|---|---|---| | Queen's Gate School, South Kensington | Independent (fee-paying), girls | Friday 30 October 2026 (16+ application deadline) | Taster afternoon and interviews Friday 6 November 2026; applicants sit a general paper and may sit subject papers | School admissions page, checked October 2026 | | Harris Westminster Sixth Form | State-funded, academically selective | Friday 4 December 2026 at 9am (window opened 11 September 2026) | Entrance examinations Saturday 16 January 2027; interviews 13 February 2027; offers 19 March 2027. The school states that applications outside the window cannot be considered | School "Applying" page, checked October 2026 |

Three further schools on our original shortlist (Chelsea Academy, Harris Academy Wimbledon and Harris Garrard Academy) had not published their September 2027 application windows on their sixth-form pages when we checked on 29 October 2026, although each has published a 2027 admissions policy and Chelsea Academy has announced a sixth-form open evening for 2027 applicants on Thursday 12 November 2026. Their 2026-entry windows ran from late October or late November to between 19 January and 9 February, and previous years are not reliable evidence of this year's deadlines. Check the school's page or email its sixth-form admissions address before relying on a date.

How we checked: each school's own sixth-form admissions or "how to apply" page, checked against available official information in October 2026, looking only for dates explicitly tied to September 2027 entry. We did not use third-party listing sites. Dates can change; the school's page is always the authority.

What the two early deadlines tell you

The two confirmed dates are not typical, but they show the two ends of the pattern.

Independent schools run 16+ entry like 11+ entry. Queen's Gate's deadline sits in the same week as the council's Year 7 date, with assessment and interviews a week later. If any independent school is on your child's list, assume the autumn term, not the spring, and look for the school's "16+ entry 2027" page rather than its general admissions page.

Selective state sixth forms close early because they test. Harris Westminster's December deadline exists so that every applicant can sit its entrance papers in January and be interviewed in February before offers in March. This is specific to the school, and to a small number of similarly selective sixth forms. It is not how most London sixth forms work: a comprehensive school sixth form usually makes conditional offers from predicted grades and a short meeting, without an entrance test, and closes its window in the new year.

If your child's list is all comprehensive sixth forms and colleges, the practical message is simply that "January" arrives faster than it sounds. Mock results, predicted grades and the application form all land in the same six weeks after Christmas.

The rules that protect external applicants

Families applying from another school sometimes worry that the school's own pupils have an inside track. The School Admissions Code, which binds every maintained school and academy sixth form in England, has specific rules here.

Paragraph 2.6 says a school sixth form can set academic entry criteria, but those criteria must be the same for external and internal places. The arrangements for external applicants must be consulted on, determined and published to the same timetable as the school's other admission arrangements, which is why a school can tell you its 2027 deadline now. The Code also says that a meeting to discuss courses and entry requirements cannot form part of the decision on whether to offer a place, and that looked-after and previously looked-after children who meet the academic criteria must be given the highest priority if the sixth form is oversubscribed.

Independent schools are outside the Code: a fee-paying school sets its own process, its own tests and its own deadlines, which is why Queen's Gate's round looks nothing like Harris Westminster's.

For what a conditional offer means, how oversubscription criteria work and your right of appeal if a school sixth form refuses a place, see how sixth-form admissions actually work.

A checklist for the next fortnight

1. Write the shortlist down with a date next to each name. Find every school's sixth-form page and copy the closing date and time for September 2027 entry. If the page still shows last year's dates, email the sixth-form admissions address and ask.
2. Separate the three routes. Independent school 16+ (autumn, with assessment), selective state sixth form (early, with entrance papers), and comprehensive sixth form or college (new year, from predicted grades). Each needs a different kind of preparation.
3. Check the entry requirements against the mock timetable. Most offers will be conditional on summer grades, but the application often asks for predicted grades, which schools usually set after the November mocks. Our guide to GCSE mocks explains what they do and do not decide.
4. Ask whether staying on needs a form. Some schools ask internal pupils to apply by the same date; others don't.
5. Keep a copy of everything you submit, with the date. If a decision later looks inconsistent with the published arrangements, that record is what an appeal is built on.

If a deadline has already passed

Selective schools that say applications outside the window cannot be considered usually mean it. Most other sixth forms and colleges will tell you whether a late application goes on a waiting list, and colleges in particular often stay open into the spring. Entry requirements vary widely between providers, so a missed window at one school rarely closes a subject off everywhere; what to do if you miss your sixth-form offer covers the results-day version of the same problem.

Sources

• GOV.UK, School admissions: How to apply (sixth-form places applied for directly to the school or college). https://www.gov.uk/schools-admissions/how-to-apply
• Department for Education, School Admissions Code 2021, paragraph 2.6 (sixth-form entry criteria the same for internal and external places; publication timetable; meetings not part of the decision; looked-after priority). https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/60ebfeb08fa8f50c76838685/School_admissions_code_2021.pdf
• Queen's Gate School, Admissions process (16+ application deadline Friday 30 October 2026; taster afternoon and interviews Friday 6 November 2026). https://www.queensgate.org.uk/admissions/admissions-process/
• Harris Westminster Sixth Form, Applying to Harris Westminster Sixth Form (window opened 11 September 2026, closes 4 December 2026 at 9am; examinations 16 January 2027; interviews 13 February 2027; offers 19 March 2027). https://www.harriswestminstersixthform.org.uk/44/applying-to-harris-westminster-sixth-form
• Chelsea Academy, Sixth Form Admissions and homepage notice of the 12 November 2026 open evening. https://chelsea-academy.org/admissions/sixth-form-admissions/
• Harris Academy Wimbledon, How to Apply (2026-entry window and entry criteria; 2027 policy published). https://www.harriswimbledon.org.uk/sixth-form/how-to-apply
• Harris Garrard Academy, Applying to Sixth Form (2026-entry window; 2027-28 policy published). https://www.harrisgarrard.org.uk/sixth-form/applying-to-sixth-form
• Pan-London Admissions: 31 October 2026 statutory closing date for coordinated September 2027 applications, as stated in London borough admission arrangements for 2027-28.

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