Parents in Gedling borough will today (Tuesday) find out which primary school their children will attend from September – and according to the local authority, an increased amount have been offered places at their first-choice school.
A total of 1163 out of 1327 parents have been offered a place for their children at their first preferred primary school for September 2019 – an increase from last year.
Nottinghamshire County Council say they have now started contacting parents today to let them know which school their son or daughter will to attend from the autumn.
This year also shows an increase in the number of applications received by the council before the closing date.
There has also been an increase in the percentage of parents who have got a place at one of their preferred schools – 98.8%.
Of the remainder, 22 (1.7% of applicants) parents have been offered a place at a school they didn’t include on their application. 11 of these parents only made a single preference (50%)
The authority said it had done all it could to ensure parents could send their child to a school they wanted.
Chairman of the county council’s children and young people’s committee, Cllr Philip Owen said: “The situation as a whole continues to be encouraging as the majority of parents will be getting a school for which they made a preference.
“I am very happy that every child in Gedling, whose parents applied before the deadline, will have a primary school place in September 2019.”
“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.
“As an authority, we aren’t complacent as we’re aware of the pressures within the system and the forecast number of children coming through.
“We have a statutory duty to ensure we have sufficient school places across all schools, irrespective of whether they are academies, local authority maintained or otherwise governed. And we continue to make plans to deal with these pressures in the years to come.”
Service director for education, learning and skills, Marion Clay also assured late applicants that a school place would be available for their child this September: “The waiting list applies to all on-time unsuccessful applications, late applications and changes to preferences.
“If a parent has been refused a place at a preferred school they have a right to appeal against the decision. All appeals are wholly independent. For information about appeals parents can visit www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk or contact 0300 500 80 80 for more advice.”
Those numbers in full
1327 applications were processed from residents living in the Gedling district for first admission to primary school including schools outside of Nottinghamshire
- 1163 were offered their first preference – 87.6%
- 1305 were offered one of their preferences (98.3%)
- 336 made only one preference – 25.3%
- 22 alternative offers were made where no preference could be met – 1.7%
- 11 of these only made one preference (50%)
