Nottinghamshire County Council reveals nine out of ten children secured first preference primary school

Nine out of ten Nottinghamshire parents secured a place at their first preference primary school for children due to start in September .

A total of 8,204 (92%) got their first-choice place, a slight decrease in the percentage compared with last year.

Nottinghamshire County Council contacted 8,881 parents in the county to let them know which school their children would be attending.

A further 745 applications were received from outside the county for school places in Nottinghamshire.

Mr Philip Owen, chairman of the council’s children and young people’s committee chairman said: “The situation is encouraging as over 92% of Nottinghamshire parents secured their first preference and the majority of parents will be getting a place at one of the schools for which they made a preference.

“I am pleased that every child in Nottinghamshire, whose parents applied before the deadline, will have a primary school place in September.

“The council has worked hard in recent years to respond to the increasing demand for primary school places.

“Late applicants can be assured that a school place would be available for their child in September.

“The waiting list applies to all on-time unsuccessful applications, late applications and changes to preferences.

“Unfortunately, popular schools will always be over-subscribed and whatever the admissions criteria are for those schools, the likelihood is that there will be some disappointed families.”

Over 98% (8,742) of Nottinghamshire residents were offered one of their preferences.

This year has seen a decrease in the number of parents making more than one preference compared to last year ­— 35% made only one preference.

In total, 1.6% of applicants (139) received alternative offers ­— where applicants are offered a place at a school they didn’t include on their application ­— 81 of these stated only one preference.

Of the 745 applications received from residents outside Nottinghamshire, 317 (42.6%) were allocated places.

Parents have the right to an independent appeal about their child’s school place.