One in six children miss school choice

EDUCATION: The proportion of children missing out on a place at their top choice of secondary school has risen to the highest since the start of the decade.

Some 16.5 per cent of 11-yearolds across the country did not get their first preference, up from 15.9 per cent in 2016. The last time the proportion was above 16 per cent was in 2010.

THE PROPORTION of children missing out on a place at their top choice of secondary school has risen to the highest level since the start of the decade.

Some 16.5 per cent of 11-yearolds across the country – about one in six – did not get their first preference this year, up from 15.9 per cent in 2016. The last time the proportion was above 16 per cent was in 2010.

There are wide variations in the rate of pupils not getting their first choice of school across the country, as well as in Yorkshire, where the proportion varies between four and 26 per cent. An education charity says there is a £45,700 house premium to live near the best schools and has called for the use of random ballots to make admissions fairer.

Separate figures from the Department for Education also show one in 10 were not offered their first choice of primary school, an improvement from roughly one in nine (11.6 per cent) last year.

Applications to primary schools are falling, thanks to a drop in the birth rate since 2013, meaning a greater percentage of children are being offered a place at their first choice.

By contrast, applications to secondary schools have been rising steadily in recent years, prompted by a spike in births in the previous decade.

A total of 562,487 applications were made to secondary schools across England this year – the highest number since 2008.

Some 96.1 per cent of youngsters received an offer from any one of their preferred secondary schools, down slightly on 96.5 per cent in 2016.

But a child’s chances of receiving a first preference depended greatly on where they live.

The North-East saw the highest proportion of first-choice offers for secondary schools – 90.9 per cent – just ahead of the South West. London had the lowest proportion at 68.2 per cent.

In Yorkshire, 12.1 per cent of children did not get their first choice of secondary school, with 4.2 per cent not getting any of their top-three preferences.

The area where children were most likely to miss out on their first choice was Bradford, with 26.3 per cent not getting their first choice. East Riding of Yorkshire had the lowest rate, at just four per cent.

Bradford council says 266 more pupils got their first choice in the city compared with last year.

The authority said the increase came despite a rise in the number of applications. The figure for first-preference allocations in Bradford is affected by several schools using admissions processes including random allocation, fair banding, postcode bands and faith.

Nationally, the number of applications for a primary school place in 2017 was 620,330, a drop of 3.3 per cent on the total for 2016. A Department for Education spokesman said: “The vast majority of parents continue to secure a place at their first choice of school for their child, 86.9 per cent – with more than 95 per cent having received offers at one of their top three choices. There are already 1.8 million more children in good or outstanding schools than 2010 but we want to do more to ensure every child has access to a good school place.”

Sir Peter Lampl, founder and chairman of the Sutton Trust, said: “Today’s figures show that your chance of going to your first choice of secondary school is affected by where you live. Our own research has highlighted a £45,700 house premium to live in the catchment area of the best schools. This is why we want to see more use of ballots in cities – where a proportion of places is allocated randomly – to make school admissions fairer.”

12.1 The percentage of 11-year-olds in Yorkshire who don’t get their first choice of secondary school.