How to hire
Start with the right application route, because Telford has more than one. For a Year 7 state place you apply online through the Telford and Wrekin portal, and the council strongly advises listing four local schools including your nearest or catchment school [5]. Children starting secondary in September apply by the end of the preceding October, and children with an education, health and care plan keep to the same closing date [5]. Two schools in this round break the pattern: Thomas Telford School takes applications directly to the school in early autumn with assessments in October, and should not be listed on the portal form, while Madeley Academy invites applicants to a reasoning assessment in November [5]. Send each application through its own route and keep the confirmation email. If a selective place is on your mind, note the separate grammar track: Telford's two grammar schools need an entrance-test registration by late June with the test in mid-September, alongside the portal listing [5].
Check the registers before you shortlist. Search the Ofsted site by school name for the latest report and grade [1], look up the same school on the national Get Information about Schools record for its age range, trust and open status [2], and use the Independent Schools Inspectorate search for an independent school such as Wrekin College [3]. Every state school must publish its admission arrangements, curriculum, behaviour policy, links to its Ofsted reports and performance data, and its special needs report on its own website [4]. If any of that is missing, ask the school where it sits before you visit.
Visit on an open evening with questions written down. Ask how behaviour is managed day to day, who looks after pastoral care in the first term, what the sixth-form course range covers where one exists, and how careers guidance runs for younger pupils — the last two were named as next steps at one inspected school in this round. Talk to other parents about what they think, which the national admissions guidance itself suggests [4]. Weigh travel too: the council expects most children to attend a local school, and travel help generally needs the nearest school to sit more than three miles from home, so read the school travel help pages before banking on a distant choice [5]. The council's admissions booklet lists open days and evenings school by school, so pull it down early and book the evenings that clash least [5].
Read the admissions criteria for each school you list, because oversubscription rules decide the close calls. Faith schools such as Holy Trinity Academy may ask for a supplementary form on top of the council application [5]. If your child has an education, health and care plan that names a school, that school must give your child a place [4]. For The Linden Centre there is no open application at all: places come through the council's Fair Access route, so speak to the council rather than the centre about access.
Pin down the money in writing. A state place itself is free for children of compulsory school age [6], and none of the state schools in this round publishes fees or charges on its site — so the costs to ask about are uniform, meals, trips, music tuition and travel. Wrekin College is the exception: it publishes termly fees including VAT, with prep fees from £4,200 a term on its admissions page, so ask for the full senior and boarding scale plus extras, deposits and notice periods before you accept. Whatever the school, get uniform lists, meal prices and any voluntary contribution requests in one written place.
A typical Year 7 job runs like this. In the summer term you read the booklet, check catchment with the finder tool and walk the travel route your child would actually take [5]. Open evenings land in early autumn — go with questions written down and your child alongside. Submit the portal form before the October closing date and keep the confirmation email [5]. Thomas Telford School runs its own earlier September deadline, so diary that separately [5]. A refusal letter tells you how to appeal, with each refusal appealed on its own [8]. Accept your offer by the stated deadline, confirm uniform and start-day details in writing, and stay on the waiting list for a higher choice where the rules allow.
Treat the paperwork like a quote for building work: get every cost in one written place before you accept. Ask the school office for the uniform list with stockists, the daily meal price, music tuition rates, trip deposits for the year ahead and the voluntary contribution policy. At Wrekin College, ask for the full senior and boarding scale with extras, deposits and notice periods beside the published termly fees [9]. File the offer letter with your admissions emails and every receipt for the year.
After the offer arrives, reply by the stated deadline, confirm uniform, meals and start-day arrangements in writing, and keep the offer letter filed with your admissions emails. Stay on the waiting list for a higher choice where the rules allow it, and tell the council at once if your address changes before term starts. Put the open-evening dates in your diary now and work back from the October closing date.
Pricing
As of autumn 2026, day places at the state secondaries in this round carry no published fees: none of the nine state schools in the table states any charge, fee scale or VAT position on its site. That matches how state education works — every child of compulsory school age is entitled to a free place at a state school [6]. The only priced place in the round is Wrekin College, which publishes termly fees including VAT on its admissions page [9].
What moves the bill is everything around the place. Boarding costs more than day places at Wrekin, and extras stack up at any school: uniform and sports kit, daily meals or packed-lunch costs, bus fares where travel help does not apply, music tuition, revision guides and residential trips. Ask each school for its realistic yearly total for a new starter, not just the headline items.
On VAT, the position is simple to check. Wrekin's published fees already include VAT, as its fees page states. The state schools publish no charges to add VAT to. If any school quotes you a figure for trips, clubs or wraparound care, ask whether VAT sits inside the figure or on top of it before you agree.
A Year 7 starter pack is the most common bill. Uniform with sports kit, a term of meals, bus fares where travel help does not apply and the first round of trip deposits make up most of it — ask the school office for the realistic yearly total rather than adding up headline items yourself. Travel help turns on distance: the council points to help where the nearest secondary sits beyond three miles, so measure your route before banking on a distant choice [5].
Boarding is the dearest option in this round and sits only at Wrekin College, where the published termly fees include VAT [9]. Day fees sit below boarding, and extras stack on top at any school: uniform, meals, music tuition and residential trips. Get the full scale with deposits and notice periods in writing before you accept, and keep every receipt with the offer letter.
Get the money in writing before you accept a place: the full fee scale with what each tier includes, deposit and notice-period terms at an independent school, and uniform, meal and trip costs at any school. Keep the scale, the offer letter and every receipt together for the year.
Red flags
Cannot be found under its own name on the Ofsted reports site or the national schools record [1] [2].
Publishes no admission arrangements telling you how to apply or how places are offered [4].
Names no safeguarding lead and offers no way to report a concern.
Asks for money to secure or hold a state day place.
Holds no open events and offers no visit or tour before you must apply.
Runs a sixth form but publishes no course list or entry requirements.
A referral or specialist setting that takes applications directly instead of through the council route.
Publishes no complaints procedure telling you where to take an unresolved concern [10].
Publishes no special needs report although the published-information rules ask for one [4].