Fewer students offered preferred secondary school in Peterborough
However, the total number of offers made to students slightly increased this year
There's been reduction in the proportion of students being offered a place at one of their preferred secondary schools in Peterborough.
The Council says it's because of unprecedented numbers of Year 6 children arriving in the city this current academic year.
In total 96.59% of pupils have been allocated a place at one of their three preference schools and 93.71% of pupils were allocated a place at either their first or second preference school. In total, 83.87% of pupils have received a place at their first preference school for 2024/25.
Overall, 3,019 offers were made to Peterborough schools - a slight increase on last year.
Councillor Ray Bisby, Cabinet Member for Children's Services, said: “School place planning is always a very difficult job because we have to predict how many children will be in a year group to ensure we have enough school places available for them when they move from primary to secondary school."
"It is not a straight forward process because not all children in our primary schools move to secondary schools in Peterborough, some move out of the area, but we also get children from other local neighbouring authority areas applying for places at our schools.
“This year we saw unprecedented numbers of pupils joining Peterborough primary schools in Year 6 which means there is a greater demand for secondary school places than we had predicted and planned for which has resulted in less children being offered one of their first or second preference schools.
"However over 96.5 per cent of pupils have been offered one of their three preferences which is still an excellent outcome.
“I’d like to thank parents and carers for getting their applications in on time which will always give them the best chance of securing a place at one of their three preference schools.
“I’d also like to thank our admissions team for their excellent work at this busy time of year, processing and allocating thousands of places to children in this city.”