The majority of primary school starters in Nottinghamshire will be going to one of their preferred schools this September, with 92% of parents securing their first-choice placement.
More than 9 out of ten (8204) Nottinghamshire parents have secured a place at their first preference primary school for their children in September 2020. This indicates a slight decrease in the percentage of parents receiving an offer of their first preference compared with last year.
Nottinghamshire County Council has today (Thursday 16 April) contacted 8881 Nottinghamshire parents to let them know which school their son or daughter will be attending this September. A further 745 applications were received from residents outside of the county for primary school places within Nottinghamshire.
Over 98% (8742) of Nottinghamshire residents were offered one of their preferences. This year has seen a decrease in the number of parents making more than one preference, compared to last year.
Thirty five per cent (3115) of parents made only one preference.
In total, 1.6% of applicants (139) received alternative offers – where applicants are offered a place at a school they didn’t include on their application. 58.3% (81) of these parents only stated one preference.
Of the 745 applications received from residents outside of Nottinghamshire for primary school places within the county, 317 were allocated places (42.6%)
The County Council said it had done all it could to try and ensure that parents send their child to a school they wanted.
Councillor Philip Owen, Nottinghamshire County Council’s Children and Young People’s Committee Chairman said:
“The situation is encouraging as over 92% of Nottinghamshire parents secured their first preference and the majority of parents will be getting a place at one of the schools for which they made a preference.
“I am pleased that every child in Nottinghamshire, whose parents applied before the deadline, will have a primary school place in September 2020.
“The County Council has worked hard in recent years to respond to the increasing demand for primary school places.
“Late applicants can be assured that a school place would be available for their child in September 2020. The waiting list applies to all on-time unsuccessful applications, late applications and changes to preferences.
“Unfortunately, popular schools will always be over-subscribed and whatever the admissions criteria are for those schools, the likelihood is that there will be some disappointed families.”
Parents have the right to appeal about their child’s school place and all appeals are wholly independent.
For further information on primary admissions visit: https://www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk/education/school-admissions/first-admission-and-transfer-at-junior
