Offers of primary school places received today

Families applying for their child’s first primary school place have received their offers today (16 April), with thousands of the city’s children being given a place at their first preference school from September 2014.

A total of 85 per cent of children will attend their first preference primary school, which is the same as last year - while overall more than 95 per cent will attend one of their five preferences. A total of 9774 reception places have been allocated this year, which is 419 more than in 2013.

Alternative places have been offered to 468 children who did not get any of their five preferences (five per cent). Families are recommended to always include their nearest school as one of their preferences and to make sure they use all five preferences to get the best chance of being offered a preferred school.

The volume of applications makes the admissions process one of the biggest tasks in the education calendar, and this year, the number of applications was especially high, with 669 more applications this year than two years ago. The council’s school places planning team has worked hard with schools to ensure there are sufficient places for the increase in pupil numbers in the city.

Councillor Judith Blake, executive member responsible for children’s services said:

“For parents and carers, choosing a school for their children is one of the most important decisions they will make. I am pleased we have been able to offer 95 percent of families one of their preferences.

"We do understand though how disappointing and distressing it is when people aren’t allocated their preferred school. We encourage parents to make sure they include their nearest school and use all five preferences to increase their chances of obtaining a place at a local school.

“In a very difficult environment we will continue to do everything we can to ensure parents have a full understanding of how the process works so that as many as possible receive their highest possible preference.”

The full breakdown of offers for primary school places for 2014/15 is:

8270 children were given their first preference (85%) (this is 321 more than last year)

651 children were given their second preference (7%)

246 children were given their third preference (3%)

95 children were given their fourth preference (1%)

44 children were given their fifth preference (


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Email: emma.whittell@leeds.gov.uk