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Nottingham Post
Nottingham Post
National
Hannah Mitchell

More than 92 percent of children offered a place at their first choice primary school in city and county

Children across the county have been told which school they will be going to in September.

Of the 12,436 in the city and county combined, 11,531 were told they would be going to their first choice schools - a total of 92 percent.

The majority of parents will be happy with the news however, if you are unhappy, you can appeal via the relevant council websites.

Almost 90 percent got their first choice in the city

Just under 90 percent of children in Nottingham have been offered their first choice primary school place.

Figures out today (April 16) show that 3,260 children will be going to their first-choice school and 207 to their second choice.

This means 175 children in the city missed out on their first or second choice.

Primary school applications in Nottingham have increased from 3,592 last year to 3,642 for the 2019/20 school year.

Nottingham City Council said it had worked hard to expand primary schools to make sure there are the right number of places for the growing number of children in the city.

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Nick Lee, director of education in Nottingham, said: “I’m delighted that every child in Nottingham has been offered a place at a primary school for the 2019/20 academic year – despite an increase in applications.

“The majority of these offers (95%) are for the parents’ first or second choice of school.

“Our expansion strategy is ensuring that every child and young person has access to the very best facilities in order to help them to succeed and reach their full potential. We have invested £42m since 2009 to provide 5,000 additional primary places once all year groups are full by 2022.

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“We are continuing to plan for future years, but parents can help us in the primary admissions process by submitting their application before the deadline and by always using all of their six choices of primary school.”

What about in the county?

In Nottinghamshire, more than 94 percent of children secured their first preference school.

A total of 8,271 out of 8,794 parents secured a place at their preferred primary school, which is an increase on last year.

Of the remainder, 96 children have been offered a place at a school they didn’t include on their application and 56 of these parents only made one choice.

Chairman of the county council’s children and young people’s committee, Councillor Philip Owen, said: “The situation as a whole continues to be encouraging as the majority of parents will be getting a school for which they made a preference.

"I am very happy that every child in Nottinghamshire, whose parents applied before the deadline, will have a primary school place in September 2019.

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“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.

“As an authority, we aren’t complacent as we’re aware of the pressures within the system and the forecast number of children coming through.

“We have a statutory duty to ensure we have sufficient school places across all schools, irrespective of whether they are academies, local authority maintained or otherwise governed. And we continue to make plans to deal with these pressures in the years to come.”

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The service director for education, learning and skills, Marion Clay, added: “The waiting list applies to all on-time unsuccessful applications, late applications and changes to preferences.

“If a parent has been refused a place at a preferred school they have a right to appeal against the decision.

"All appeals are wholly independent. For information about appeals parents can visit www.nottinghamshire.gov.uk  or contact 0300 500 80 80 for more advice.”

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