Feeder School

A feeder school is a primary school whose pupils receive priority for entry to a particular secondary school.

Feeder arrangements are a formal admissions criterion: the secondary school’s oversubscription criteria list one or more named primaries whose pupils get higher priority than the general distance-based applicants.

Feeders are common in:

• Some grammar schools (where a named partner primary feeds into the grammar)
• Faith school chains (a CofE primary feeding a CofE secondary)
• Rural areas where one secondary serves several scattered villages
• Hertfordshire and parts of Buckinghamshire, which use formal feeder rules at scale

Feeder priority is not the same as guaranteed transfer. The pupil still has to apply via the normal Common Application Form on time, and in oversubscribed schools even feeder-priority applicants can be displaced by higher categories such as EHCP or sibling priority.

If a school you’re considering has feeder arrangements, check where you sit in the priority order and how many places typically go to feeder pupils.