Record number of pupils receive offers of a city secondary school

THOUSANDS of children across the city will be offered places at secondary schools today (Monday 1 March) – with a record number of children being offered a year 7 place at a city school.

Today – 1 March – is National Offer Day, when children up and down the country learn which secondary school they will attend for the 2021/22 academic year.

In Leicester, 4,748 city residents applied for a secondary school place. Of those, 3,986 (84 per cent) gained a place at their first-choice school. A further 388 (8.2 per cent) got their second preference,105 (2.2 per cent) their third preference and 25 (0.5 per cent) their fourth preference.

In total, 94.9 per cent were offered a place at one of their top four schools, with the remaining 5.1 per cent offered alternative places.

Every applicant who applied on time was offered a place at a school.

A record number of applicants (4,310) were offered a place at a Leicester city secondary school. This is the fifth consecutive year of increasing numbers of applicants being granted places at city schools, up from 3,517 five years ago.

This year, city schools have also seen a marked increase in popularity from both city and non-city residents. Compared to last year, 10.6% more applications were received from non-city residents seeking a place at a city school. By contrast, the number of city residents applying for a place at non-city schools fell by 9.6%.

Cllr Elly Cutkelvin, assistant city mayor for education, said: “I’m really pleased to see that city schools are becoming an even more popular choice for parents. I’m also pleased that the vast majority of applicants – 94.9 per cent – gained a place at one of their preferred schools, with most getting their first choice.

“I’m particularly proud that we have been able to provide a record number of city school places despite the backdrop of the coronavirus pandemic and all the disruption to education that it has caused.

“We know starting secondary school can be an anxious time for families, and we do all we can to make the applications process as straightforward as possible while meeting demand.

“‘This year we have seen that over 40% of parents only put down one preference – up from 36% last year - believing it would help their chances. What this in fact does is significantly raise the chance you will be offered a place outside of your local area, so we would strongly encourage every applicant to always use all four preferences, including their catchment area school as one of their choices.

“Despite making a record number of offers of places within city secondary schools, we have made sure that, once again, no-one who applies on time is without a place.”

Over 95% of parents made an online application, meaning they can view their results online on offer day, rather than having to wait for a letter to be posted out to them.

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School places table