School place offers making the grade
PARENTS MOSTLY PLEASED WITH OUTCOMES
NORTH East parents were mostly left satisfied with their secondary school offer, despite rising pupil numbers.
The region fared well on what is commonly known as National Offer Day, on Thursday, when families found out which secondary school they will be sending current year 6 children to in September.
Last year, across England 16.5% of 11-year-olds did not get their first preference of secondary school, up from 15.9% in 2016. And with official figures showing secondary school pupil numbers in England are growing, in some areas just two in three families have been able to send their child to the school they wanted.
In London this year, a third of pupils missed out on their top-choice school, 29% in Birmingham, and 29% in Liverpool.
By contrast, in the North East council areas where figures have been released, the vast majority of families did net places at their first choice school.
Northumberland has one of the highest rates of satisfied parents in the country, with 97.86% now set to send their child to their first choice school. No families in the county were offered places at schools which weren’t one of their top three choices – 1.85% got their second preference school and 0.29% their third choice. In Durham, just over 95% of the 5,162 pupils who applied were offered a place at their first choice school.
A remaining 150 children were given places at their second choice school (2.9%, up from 2.5% last year), with 36 at their third choice (0.7% up from 0.5%).
In total, 60 (1.1%) children across the county were offered places in a school they hadn’t chosen at all, down from 84 last year.
Sunderland had the next highest rate of satisfied families, with 90% getting offers at their first choice of school. In total, 96.4% got one of their top three choices, 5.1% at their second choice.
Rates were slightly lower in South Tyneside, where 88% of the 1505 who applied were given a firstchoice place.
But 85 children (6%) were offered a place at a school they hadn’t selected at all.
A total of 76 children received their second preference school (5%), and 16 children their third preference (1%).
In both Gateshead and Newcastle, council officers were unable to share detailed offer figures, saying the weather had affected staffing and prevented them from being complied.
North Tyneside council were also unable to share a breakdown of the offers sent out on Thursday.
Among the Gateshead families receiving offers were 59 who had requested places at Thomas Hepburn School. But with a consultation ongoing over the school’s future, a council spokesperson said these families would be contacted by the council to find alternative schools, should they want to change, or should the closure go ahead.
In the North East, the vast majority of families did net places at their first choice school