Yorkshire Coast children secure first choice secondary school
Children on the Yorkshire Coast have been finding out if they have secured their first secondary school preference.
Children on the Yorkshire Coast have been finding out if they have secured their first secondary school preference.
In North Yorkshire, almost 90 per cent of parents in North Yorkshire (89.87 per cent) secured their first secondary school preference for their child.
Of all North Yorkshire children who requested a school place, almost 94 per cent (93.98 per cent) received an offer from one of their top three preferences of secondary school.
This year’s cohort of North Yorkshire pupils transferring to secondary school was 6,205.
North Yorkshire County Councillor Patrick Mulligan, Executive Member for Education and Skills, said:
“Once again so many of our families have gained the first preference from their choice of schools, which is great news.
“We work with schools across the county to ensure they deliver the highest standards of education, so families will increasingly be able to send their children to good schools.”
In North Yorkshire, parents can state a preference for up to five schools on their application form.
Cllr Mulligan added:
“This year, the authority has seen a rise in the number of parents who have not made full use of this opportunity or did not complete a common application form before the published deadline as required. As the authority must ensure that each child is allocated a school place on the national offer day, there has unfortunately been a need to place children in schools which in some cases could be some distance from their home. Every effort will be made to accommodate parental wishes following allocation day where there is capacity in their chosen schools.”
Meanwhile in the East Riding, the number of Year 6 children who have been awarded places for the school named by their parents/carers as their first preference has risen to nearly 97% in this year’s secondary school admissions round.
East Riding of Yorkshire Council received 3,354 applications from East Riding resident parents of pupils due to start at a secondary school in September 2021.
The authority says despite the coronavirus pandemic which has meant council services have needed to change how they operate, 3,250 (96.9%, an increase of 1.7% on 2020) have been allocated a place at their first preference school and 3,321 (99%, an increase of 0.2% on 2020) have been allocated a place at one of the three schools parent/carers named as their first, second or third preference.
The council says these figures are an improvement on the results of last year’s secondary admissions round, despite there being 2.8% more East Riding resident children in this year group than last year.
In addition, a focus on increasing the number of East Riding residents applying online for a school resulted in the numbers of those applying online increasing by over 10% from last year.
East Riding of Yorkshire Council says a significant amount of work was completed in trying to ensure places were allocated at schools that parents/carers named on their application. Despite this, there were 33 children for whom the council were unable to allocate a place at any school named by their parents/carers. 31 children have been allocated places at their catchment area school and just two at the nearest East Riding school with a place available. Allocations to schools that were not named as a preference by parents/carers are down on last year for the second year running.
Similar to previous years, the vast majority of children (93%), living in the East Riding will attend a school in the East Riding, with 82% attending their local ‘catchment’ school.
320 children living in other local authority areas have been allocated places at schools in the East Riding, with the largest number (254) coming from Hull.
227 East Riding resident children have been allocated places at schools in other local authority areas, including 128 who have been allocated places at schools in Hull.
Eight of the 18 East Riding secondary schools have filled all their available places which includes Bridlington School.
Councillor Julie Abraham, East Riding of Yorkshire Council portfolio holder for children, young people and education, said:
“It is pleasing to see so many children have been awarded places at the school named by their parents/ carers as their first preference, despite more children needing places this year.
“Parents have clearly shown that they want their children to go to their local school and to be a part of their local community.”
Deborah Myers, the council’s head of children and young people, education and schools, said:
“It is excellent news that nearly 97% of parents and carers have been able to access their first choice of secondary school for their children. I would like to thank parents and carers for their timely applications and maximising the use of our online system and the admissions team for this achievement given the difficulties faced by everyone as a result of the pandemic. This is a huge achievement.
“The schools in the East Riding achieve and maintain good standards of education which parents really value and appreciate.”