THOUSANDS of children will be offered places at Leicester secondary schools today – with a record number of children being offered a year 7 place at a city school.
Today (Friday 1 March) is National Offer Day, when children up and down the country learn which secondary school they will attend for the 2024/25 academic year.
A record number of applicants (4,370) were offered a place at a Leicester city secondary school. This is the eighth consecutive year of increasing numbers of applicants being granted places at city schools, up from 3,541 in 2016.
In total, 94.7% were offered a place at one of their top four schools, with the remaining 5.3% offered alternative places. Every applicant who applied on time was offered a place at a school.
In Leicester, 4,726 city residents applied for a secondary school place. Of those, 3830 (81%) gained a place at their first-choice school. A further 507 (10.7%) got their second preference, 115 (2.4%) their third preference and 23 (0.5%) their fourth preference.
Cllr Vi Dempster, assistant city mayor for education, said: “I’m really pleased to see that the vast majority of applicants for a city school gained a place at one of their preferred schools, with most getting their first choice.
“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 increased demand. 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.”
This year, 92.7% 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.