Faith School Admissions in England: How the Supplementary Information Form (SIF) Works

You have found a church school you like, you have read that it gives priority to families of the faith, and somewhere in the small print is a second form you are supposed to fill in and send straight to the school. That form trips up a lot of parents. Some assume the council application covers everything and never send it. Others fill it in but miss the evidence the school actually needs. Both can quietly drop a child out of the faith places they would have qualified for. This page explains what the Supplementary Information Form is, who needs one, what it asks for, and the deadline you cannot afford to miss.

The short version: at a faith school you usually have to apply twice over. Once on your council's common application form, like every other school, and once on the school's own SIF, which carries the religious information the council form does not ask for. Miss the second one and you can still be considered, but not for the faith places, which at a popular church school are often the only places that get offered.

What a Supplementary Information Form actually is

A Supplementary Information Form, almost always shortened to SIF, is an extra form that some schools use alongside the normal admissions process. The common application form your council runs is the same for every school, and it collects standard details: your child, your address, the schools you want in order. It does not collect anything about religion. A faith school that gives priority to worshippers therefore needs another way to gather that information, and the SIF is it.

Two things about the SIF catch parents out. First, it does not replace your council application. You still list the faith school on the council's common application form, in your preferred order, exactly as you would any other school. The SIF is in addition to that, not instead of it. Second, the SIF goes to the school or its governing body, not to the council, and often by a different route and sometimes a different date. Sending one without the other is the classic mistake.

Not every faith school uses a SIF, and a few non-faith schools use one too, for example to confirm a medical or social need. So the rule is to read each school's own admission arrangements rather than assume. If a school says it has a SIF, treat it as compulsory for the criteria you are aiming at.

Who needs to complete one

You need a SIF if you want your child considered under a school's faith-based criteria. If a place at the church school depends on your family's worship, the SIF is how you prove it, and without one the school has no information to assess you on.

You do not necessarily need one if you are applying to a faith school but not relying on faith priority. Most faith schools keep a proportion of places for children regardless of religion, allocated on the ordinary criteria such as looked-after children, siblings and distance from the school. If you are aiming at those open places, you apply through the council form in the usual way and leave the SIF aside. The catch is that open places at a sought-after faith school can be very few and go to families living very close, so check the numbers before you decide to skip the form.

How faith priority and the SIF fit together

Faith schools rank applicants the same way every oversubscribed school does, by working down a list of oversubscription criteria until the places run out. The difference is that a faith school's list usually has faith categories near the top, splitting families by how much they worship. A typical Church of England or Catholic school might prioritise practising families of its own denomination first, then other Christian families, then families of other faiths, then children of no faith, with distance from the school used to sort within each band.

The SIF is what places you into one of those faith bands. It turns "we go to church" into a category the admissions team can rank, backed by evidence. Without a completed SIF, the school has nothing to put you in a faith band with, so you drop to the non-faith part of the list, competing on distance alone. If you want the underlying mechanics of how any school sorts applicants once it is oversubscribed, our guide to how oversubscription criteria allocate places walks through it step by step.

It is worth knowing that faith schools are allowed to do this. Schools with a religious character can use faith as an oversubscription criterion and ask for relevant religious information, within the rules of the School Admissions Code. What they cannot do is ask for information unrelated to that faith test, and the non-faith criteria such as looked-after children still apply on top.

What evidence a faith SIF asks for

This is where the form gets specific, and where leaving boxes blank does real damage. The exact wording varies by school and by faith, but the common requests fall into a few groups:

• A record of worship attendance. Many schools ask you to show regular attendance at a named place of worship over a set period, often weekly or monthly for one to two years before you apply. The frequency and the length of the period are set by each school and vary, so read the form rather than assume.
• Confirmation from a religious leader. The minister, priest, imam or other leader is usually asked to sign part of the form, or supply a separate reference, to verify the attendance you have declared. This is the part most likely to need lead time, because you have to arrange it with a busy person.
• Supporting documents. Where the school uses them, a baptism, christening or dedication certificate, or equivalent record for other faiths, may be requested as evidence of belonging to the faith.

Read your chosen school's SIF and its admission arrangements together, because the form tells you what to supply and the arrangements tell you how it will be scored. A school that wants two years of weekly attendance will treat an applicant who can show only six months differently, and you want to know that before the deadline, not after.

The deadline you cannot miss

The SIF runs to the same national closing dates as the main application. For secondary school the deadline is 31 October, and for primary school it is 15 January. Return the SIF to the school by that date, with every piece of supporting evidence attached.

Two timing traps catch families out. First, some schools set their own earlier internal cut-off for the SIF, so the date on the form may be before the council's. Second, if a minister has to sign the form, you are relying on someone else's diary, and a vicar asked the week before half term may not be able to turn it round in time. Treat the signature as the slow step and start early. A SIF that arrives late is usually treated like one that never arrived: your child is considered, but under the non-faith criteria. For how the SIF date sits inside the wider cycle, including National Offer Day, see our guide to the admissions timeline and deadlines.

What happens if you submit it, and if you do not

If you complete the SIF properly and on time, the school reads it, places your child in the right faith band, and ranks you within that band on its remaining criteria, usually distance. You are then considered for a place exactly as your worship and circumstances qualify you for. The council still makes the actual offer through the equal preference system, but the school has told it where you stand.

If you do not submit the SIF, or submit it late or incomplete, your application is not thrown out. You stay on the council's common application form and the school still considers your child. What changes is the band: with no faith information the school cannot place you in a faith category, so you fall to the open or distance-only criteria. At an undersubscribed faith school that may not matter, because there are places for everyone. At a popular one it matters a great deal, because places often run out inside the faith bands, and a family that would have qualified on faith can miss out for the want of a form. Nobody rejects your child on faith grounds; you simply were not assessed on them.

Because faith priority only ever decides the order within a school, it never changes how you list your choices on the council form. List the faith school in your genuine order of preference like any other, a point covered in our guide on how to rank your school choices. And if you are offered a place elsewhere but still want the faith school, you can join its waiting list, which is reordered each time using the same faith and distance criteria rather than by how long you have waited, explained in how waiting lists are ordered. You can also appeal a refused place, though a faith school can be hard to win on appeal if the faith bands were full.

A short checklist before you apply

• Confirm whether each faith school you want uses a SIF, by reading its admission arrangements, not by guessing.
• List the faith school on your council's common application form in your true order of preference. The SIF never replaces this.
• Get the SIF from the school or its website, and note any internal deadline earlier than the national one.
• Gather your evidence early: attendance record, any certificate the school asks for, and time for a minister to sign.
• Return the completed SIF to the school by 31 October for secondary or 15 January for primary, with everything attached.
• Keep a copy of what you sent, in case you need it for a waiting list or an appeal later.

Faith school admissions feel more complicated than they are, mostly because of the second form. Once you see the SIF for what it is, the school's way of collecting the religious information the council cannot, the job is straightforward: apply on the council form like everyone else, send the SIF with real evidence by the deadline, and keep a copy. For the official position on how schools may set faith criteria, the government's page on school admissions criteria confirms that faith schools can prioritise children from a particular religion. You can start your wider research, including faith schools and recent distance data in your area, from the Schools Insight homepage, and read the full school admissions guide for England for the rest of the process.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to fill in a Supplementary Information Form for a faith school?

Only if you want to be considered under the school's faith-based criteria. You still apply for every school, faith schools included, through your local council's common application form. The SIF is an extra form, returned to the school itself, that supplies the religious information the council form does not collect. If you do not want faith priority, or the school does not use one, you can skip it. But if the faith places are the reason you are applying, a missing SIF usually means you are not assessed for them.

What happens if I do not submit the SIF?

Your application is not lost. You stay on the council's main form and are still considered for the school, but without the faith information you are placed in a lower oversubscription category, normally the open or distance-only criteria rather than the faith ones. At a popular church school that is often where places run out, so skipping the SIF can quietly cost you the place even though your child was never formally rejected.

What evidence does a faith SIF usually ask for?

It varies by school and faith, but common requests are a record of regular worship attendance over a set period, often weekly or monthly for one to two years before applying, confirmed by a minister, priest or religious leader who signs the form, plus documents such as a baptism or dedication certificate where the school uses them. Always read that school's own SIF and admission arrangements, because the exact attendance bar and paperwork differ between schools.

When is the SIF deadline?

Return the SIF by the national application closing date for that round: 31 October for secondary school and 15 January for primary school. Some schools and ministers set an earlier internal cut-off, especially where a minister has to sign the form, so check the school's own date and leave time to arrange any signature. A late SIF can be treated like a missing one, with your child considered under the non-faith criteria.

Can a faith school give priority to children of its religion?

Yes. Schools with a religious character are allowed to use faith as an oversubscription criterion and to ask for relevant information through a supplementary form, within the rules of the School Admissions Code. They cannot ask for anything unrelated to that, and non-faith parts of the criteria, such as looked-after children and distance, still apply alongside the faith ones.

My child is not religious. Can we still apply to a faith school?

Yes. Most faith schools keep a share of places for children regardless of religion, allocated on the standard criteria such as looked-after status, siblings and distance. You apply through the council form in the normal way and simply do not complete the faith SIF. You are competing for the open places rather than the faith ones, so check how many open places the school offers and how close those applicants usually live.