One In Six Children Do Not Get First Choice Of Secondary School

Specialist education lawyers at Irwin Mitchell raise awareness over the right for families to appeal after it is announced that one in six children did not get their first choice of secondary school, according to official admissions figures for England’s schools.

The Department for Education figures show that although 84.1% of parents get their first choice of secondary school, a substantial number of families still lose out, equating to 87,000 students missing out on their favourite school.

Secondary schools received the highest number of applications since 2008, totalling 548,006, and figures show that there are increasing pressures on high performing schools.

Out of all areas, Gateshead had the biggest fall in parents getting their first choice of secondary school, with 82.8%, down from 91.5% in 2015.

The statistics confirm that 3.5% of parents did not get any of their preferences for secondary school, and 3.1% missed out on all choices for primary school.

When parents do not get any of their choices, they will be allocated to another available place at a different school or offered a list of schools with empty places. In some cases, children may not have been offered any school placement due to an increasing demand for school places.

Local authorities say that a further 80,000 school places will be needed by 2024 due to increasing population.

Sarah Woosey, education specialist at Irwin Mitchell, said:

Visit the Department of Education's website for further information on the appealing process.