Nail-biting wait ends for thousands as primary places revealed
A high proportion of families in Kirklees have been successfully matched with their first preferred primary school – 92% in total, as today’s national offer day for all primary school places across the UK.
What does this mean?
Around 6,800 children will be starting school for the first time or transferring to junior or middle schools in Kirklees in September 2019 – and 98.2% have been allocated a place at one of the schools stated as a preference on their application.
Jo-Anne Sanders, Service Director – Learning and Early Support said:
“An important priority for the Council is to give our children the very best start in life by making sure every child has the same opportunities and access to good-quality learning. This is an excellent starting point for a positive, early education experience and a happy, healthy journey to learning.
Starting school, or moving to a different primary school is a big step for every child and I am delighted to see that almost all families were able to secure a place at one of their top three preferences.”
How many families secured a place at their first-preference school?
This year’s primary school allocation exposed that 6292 families secured a place at their first-preference school, with 317 (4.6%) and 108 (1.6 per cent) gaining places at their second and third preference respectively.
For the last three years, the percentage of Kirklees families receiving a place at one of their preferred schools has been in line or slightly above the regional and national average.
A breakdown of percentages at each year group
Unfortunately we fell into the small percentage whose Y3 allocations was NOT one of the 3 requested school. All the local schools are oversubscribed which I would hope Kirklees are looking to address. We are very disappointed with our allocated school which is 2.4miles away from home and has a much lower rating than the current infant school our daughter attends. The appeal process isn’t very clear and leaves working parents in limbo with little time to organise wrap-around care in time for September!