Thousands of children across the city will be offered a place at a primary school today, with a record 96.3% of children gaining a place at their first preference – the highest level recorded.
99.3% of children gained a place at one of their preferred schools.
Today (19 April) is National Offer Day when children up and down the country learn which primary school they will attend from the 2022/23 academic year.
In Leicester, 4,111 applications were received on time. Of those, 3,959 (96.3%) received their first preference, 100 (2.43%) their second preference and 18 (0.44%) their third preference. Five (0.1%) received their fourth preference.
Only 0.7% of children (29 applicants) did not gain a place at one of their preferred schools. Where families were not offered a place at one of the schools they had indicated on their application form, the maximum distance to any alternative school they were offered was 0.73 miles.
Of the four choices open to parents, 60.9% (2,505) of parents only submitted one choice of school, with only 8.9% opting to make the most of using all four choices.
Assistant city mayor Cllr Elly Cutkelvin, who leads on education, said: “We know that starting school for the first time can be an anxious time for families, and our aim is always to take away as much of the stress from the process as possible, which is why we’re always really pleased that we manage to provide chosen school places for the vast majority of people who apply to us on time.
“We still have an issue with parents who only put down one preference believing it will help their chances. What this in fact does is significantly raise the chance you will be offered a place outside of your local area, so we would encourage every applicant to always use all four preferences.
“We have made sure that, once again, no-one who applies on time is without a place.”
Online applicants – who made up 81.6% of all applications - will be able to log on to the website and see their offers from midnight on national offer day, 19 April 2022. Emails will also be sent out on offer day, with letters posted out to the home addresses of all applicants within two to three days.
Leicester City Council News 19/04/2022
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