The City Council has been able to offer more pupils their first choice of secondary school for September this year.
On National Offer Day today (Friday), the authority informed parents and carers of 2,988 children that they have secured a place at their preferred school. This compares with 2,946 for 2023.
An offer has been made to every child who applied on time, so nobody is without a place.
There were slightly fewer applications this year in Nottingham – 3,747 against 3,772 in 2023 – meaning that second preferences were also a little lower. There were 378 last year and 341 this year.
But the combined percentage of first or second choices offered rose slightly from 88 per cent last year to 89 per cent in 2024.
With all secondary schools in the city now academies, the council’s role is to facilitate the applications process but headteachers and governors make the final decision on which pupils they admit based on their published admissions criteria.
Parents and carers apply to the authority, the requests are collated and sent to academies who then inform which have been successful. Emails were sent out from midnight while letters have been issued where they were requested instead.
Council officers will continue to help parents and carers over the coming days with any questions they may have, or support with the appeal process where necessary.
Councillor Cheryl Barnard, Portfolio Holder for Children, Young People and Education at Nottingham City Council, said: “It’s been another challenging year and I’m delighted that every child has been offered a place, with even more first-choices than last year.
“I know that this is an important decision for pupils, parents and carers, who will have been eagerly awaiting the news this morning. I’d like to thank them for applying on-time to support the process, and also our Admissions team for all their hard work. I hope current Year Six pupils are excited about moving up to secondary school next year.
“We have proven in terms of our primary school expansion programme our ability to increase capacity in the city and enable more parents to get a place at their preferred school. Our £40m investment in primary school capacity since 2009 has added 4,000 new places.
“Nottingham is one of the fastest-growing cities in the country and therefore it is essential additional school capacity that we need for Nottingham children continues to be funded nationally, particularly as they make the important move to secondary education.”