New figures show the number of Nottingham children getting a place at their first choice of school has risen.

This improvement is despite an increase in demand for places in the city.

Statistics from the Department for Education for parents applying for a place for a child starting in September 2015 show:

  • Primary: 84.8% of children got their first choice, up from 80.8% in 2014
  • Secondary: 84.4% of children got their first choice, up from 81% in 2014

Nottingham has also improved its ranking nationally for pupils receiving their first choice of school:

  • Primary: up from 131st out of 152 local authorities in 2014 to 116th in 2015
  • Secondary: up from 100th out of 152 local authorities in 2014 to 79th in 2015

An additional 138 applications were received this year for primary schools – the equivalent of four extra classes of children. There were 3,877 applications for primary places in 2015 and 2,919 applications for secondary schools.

Every child in Nottingham was offered a primary place on school offer day in April.

Councillor Sam Webster, Portfolio Holder for Schools in Nottingham said: “I’m delighted that every child in Nottingham has been offered a place at a primary school for the next academic year – despite an increase in applications. The majority of these offers are for the parents’ first or second choice of school.

“This is because we’ve invested council funding to increase the number of school places and meet the rising demand for primary schools in the city.

“Since 2009, an extra 1,600 primary places have been created and a further 485 places have been made available for the 2015/16 academic year. The council has invested more than £33 million to make schools bigger and better.”

Nottingham also reduced the number of children who had none of their preferences:

  • Primary: 9.2% receiving no preferences in 2014 down to 5.5% in 2015
  • Secondary: 8.5% receiving no preferences in 2014 down to 4.1% in 2015

Of the 235 primary children who did not receive any of their preferred places in 2015, half (116) of parents only put one school preference on their application form out of a possible six choices.

Councillor Webster added: “We are continuing to plan for future years, but parents can help us in the primary admissions process by submitting their application before the deadline and by always using all of their six choices of primary school.”

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/secondary-and-primary-school-applications-and-offers-2015