Cambridge School Places 2027: 95 Extra Year 7 Spaces

Parents in Cambridge can apply for a Year 7 place from Thursday 11 September, and families in the north west of the city are applying for a school that will not exist.

Cambridgeshire County Council has confirmed that four city secondary schools will take extra pupils in September 2027 rather than open Darwin Green Academy early or in temporary buildings. The decision is set out in a letter to Year 5 parents from Sarah Callaghan, the council’s Service Director for Education, dated 1 July 2026.

The council forecasts about 700 children seeking a Year 7 place across the Chesterton, North Cambridge Academy and Impington catchments in September 2027. Those three schools between them offer 570 places. Impington Village College sits in Impington, about three miles north of the city boundary; the other two are in Cambridge.

Which schools will take extra pupils

The council calls this Option B. Four schools have agreed to over-admit, giving at least 95 extra Year 7 places:

• The Netherhall School, up to 30 extra pupils
• St Bede’s Inter-Church School, up to 30
• Trumpington Community College, up to 30
• North Cambridge Academy, up to 5

Each has agreed to the increase “if required”. The letter says the place planning team will keep talking to schools and trusts through the autumn term, so the figure may rise.

The number has already moved once. An earlier council question-and-answer document put the confirmed total at 65 extra places, from Netherhall, St Bede’s and North Cambridge Academy. Trumpington’s 30 were added by the time the July letter went out.

Over-admission is not new here

The council’s own figures show every city secondary has been asked to squeeze in extra Year 7 pupils in at least one of the last four years. The totals:

• September 2023: 112 extra places. Chesterton 30, Parkside 37, Netherhall 30, St Bede’s 11, Trumpington 4
• September 2024: 91. Coleridge 40, Netherhall 30, St Bede’s 11, Chesterton 10
• September 2025: 96. Netherhall 30, Trumpington 30, Chesterton 21, St Bede’s 6, North Cambridge Academy 5, Impington 4
• September 2026: 63. Netherhall 30, St Bede’s 10, Trumpington 8, Coleridge 8, North Cambridge Academy 5, Chesterton 2

So 2027 would be the fifth year running. What has changed is that the school built to end the squeeze is now more than eight years behind.

Darwin Green Academy: eight years late and no planning permission

Darwin Green Academy was originally planned to open in September 2020. It still does not have planning permission.

The council’s project timetable, given to the North West and West Community Forum on 26 February 2026, targets planning approval in January 2027, a start on site in April 2027 and completion in November 2028. The team is discussing a partial handover so that some of the building could be used from September 2028. Total budget is about £36 million, from Section 106 contributions, council funding and the Department for Education. Morgan Sindall is the contractor and Meridian Trust will run the school.

The council’s own reason for the delay is blunt: the school sits on the Darwin Green 2/3 land, and that development has moved more slowly than expected. With 450 homes now occupied on Darwin Green 1, the council can call for the school site under the Section 106 agreement, but only once the school scheme has planning approval.

The February forum was also told what still stands between the drawings and a building site. The developer does not yet own the site. An overhead power line has to come down and go underground. The ground needs levelling with imported material, and stabilising will take “a significant amount of time”. Access and a haul road have to be agreed, drainage connections established, and archaeology trenching carried out. There is a badger sett on the site.

When it does open, the school is designed for 600 pupils, with a further phase drawn up for another 300. It is expected to start with 90 to 120 children in Year 7 only, then add a year group each September.

What it means for you

If your child was born between 1 September 2015 and 31 August 2016 and you live in Cambridgeshire, you must apply for a Year 7 place for September 2027.

• Applications open Thursday 11 September 2026 on the council’s parent portal.
• The national closing date is midnight on 31 October 2026. Apply after that and your child will not get an offer on National Offer Day.
• Offers land on 1 March 2027.
• You can change your preferences as often as you like up to the closing date, but not after it.

Two practical points follow from the over-admission decision. First, nothing about how places are allocated changes: every school still applies its published oversubscription criteria, so catchment, feeder school and siblings decide who gets in. The extra places are added to the intake, not handed out separately.

Second, list real preferences rather than one. Children living on the current phases of Darwin Green are in the Mayfield Primary School catchment, which is a feeder for Chesterton Community College. Eddington is in the Impington Village College catchment, with the University of Cambridge Primary School as a feeder. Neither is a guarantee of a place in an oversubscribed year.

Open evenings for the September 2027 intake, from the council’s published list:

Chesterton is the catchment school for Darwin Green and is the one date the council has not been given. If you are relying on it, ring the school rather than wait.

Questions about places go to the council’s place planning team at placeplanningreferrals0-19@cambridgeshire.gov.uk.

What is being built across the city, including the housing that drives these forecasts, is on Cambridge planning.

Sources

• Cambridgeshire County Council, letter to Year 5 parents on secondary provision in north west Cambridge for September 2027, dated 1 July 2026, for the Option B decision, the named schools and their agreed numbers, and the November 2028 completion date.
• Cambridgeshire County Council, North West Cambridge frequently asked questions for the 570 places, the forecast of about 700 pupils, the over-admission figures for 2023 to 2026 and the earlier 65-place total.
• Cambridgeshire County Council, Darwin Green Academy frequently asked questions, March 2026 for the original September 2020 opening date, the reason for the delay, the 450 occupations, Meridian Trust, Morgan Sindall, the 600-place capacity and the expected 90 to 120 opening intake.
• North West and West Community Forum notes, 26 February 2026 for the £36 million budget, the January 2027 planning target, the April 2027 start on site and the list of risks including the power line, the levelling, the archaeology and the badger sett.
• Cambridgeshire County Council, secondary school admissions September 2027 and its Next Steps booklet for 2027/2028 for the 11 September opening, the 31 October closing date, the 1 March 2027 offer date and the eligible dates of birth.
• Cambridgeshire County Council, secondary open evening dates for 2027 entry for the open evening table.
• Cambridgeshire County Council, new secondary school in north west Cambridge for the scheme page and its documents.