School choice joy for the vast majority of families

April 27, 2023

The proportion of children in the East Riding who have been awarded their first preference of primary or infant school for September 2023 is 96.3 percent. 

From Monday, April 17, parents and carers across the East Riding, as well as nationally, found out which primary school their children will attend in the next academic year, which starts in September. This year, East Riding of Yorkshire Council received 2,987 applications from parent/carers and 2,875, or 96.3 percent, have been allocated a place at their first preference school, an increase of 0.4 percent on 2022. Only 28 children or 0.9 percent of children could not be allocated a place at a school their parents or carers named as a preference, with 21 children being allocated a place by the Local Authority at their local ‘catchment’ school, and a further 7 have been allocated at the next nearest school with an available place.

The Council received 111 more applications for East Riding resident children than the previous year and the numbers of children allocated their first preference rose by 116, despite there being around 130 fewer births than in last year’s cohort.  The council says this higher number of applications against a smaller population reflects a considerable amount of work to encourage on-time applications and minimise late applications jointly by schools and the council.  Similar to previous years, the vast majority of children (98.1 percent) living in the East Riding will attend a school in the East Riding.  The council says 19 of the 118 primary and infant schools in the East Riding of Yorkshire are ‘oversubscribed’ – that is they received more applications for places than the number of places available, and a further 12 schools have filled all available places. All 422 East Riding residents who applied for their children to start Year 3 at a junior school have been allocated places at the school named as their first preference. Deborah Myers, head of children and young people, education and schools at East Riding of Yorkshire Council, said: “I am delighted that East Riding of Yorkshire Council are once again able to announce that such a high proportion of our children due to start school in September 2023 can go to their first preference school. “We know that National Offer Day is an important milestone for families, and it is excellent news that over 99 percent of parents and carers have secured one of their three preference schools for their children. “I’d like to thank parents and carers for making on-time applications and I’m pleased that 96 percent of parents and carers applied online and will therefore receive an email with the name of their allocated school this morning.”

The proportion of children in the East Riding who have been awarded their first preference of primary or infant school for September 2023 is 96.3 percent. (20-04-115 SU)

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