17th April 2019 9:00
By Blue Tutors
Next week families across England will find out whether their children have been accepted into their first choice of primary school, or whether they have a place at a school at all. Reported on the BBC, last year 9% of children didn’t get their first choice of school, but 98% got one of their three top choices. More than 600,000 families will be waiting on the news of which schools they have been offered.
In the last 9 years there have been over half a million extra places made available at primary schools to meet a rising population size of 4-11 year olds. This bulge is now moving on to secondary schools, and it’s not expected that primary schools will have to continue to increase in size.
The demand for primary school places hasn’t changed evenly. In North Yorkshire 97% of pupils were awarded their first choice school, but in London it was significantly less. 77% of pupils in Camden got into their first choice school and in Kensington and Chelsea this figure was only 68%.
The average primary school population has grown by 42 places in the last 9 years, but there have been criticisms that the growth hasn’t been planned well enough, leaving many areas struggling to meet demand. Nick Gibb, the School Standards minister said that while many families might be disappointed not to get their first choice school, the primary school sector is unrecognisable from 30 years ago, and students are now virtually guaranteed a first-class education, regardless of which offers they receive.