Nine out of ten Bucks children get first choice primary school

Almost 87% of parents applying for a primary school place for their child in Buckinghamshire have been offered their first preference this year.
Cllr Zahir MohammedCllr Zahir Mohammed
Cllr Zahir Mohammed

The figures, released today (April 18) to coincide with the offers made to families, show an increase of 2.5 per cent on last year in terms of children being allocated first choices.

Cllr Zahir Mohammed, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills at Buckinghamshire County Council, hailed the news as ‘highly encouraging’ and said: “It’s reassuring to know that we are improving year on year and that the vast majority of families do obtain offers for their first preference primary schools. We were also pleased to see a sharp decline in the number of children who weren’t offered any of their preferences.

“We know what an important and potentially anxious time this is for parents, so we will do our utmost to try to achieve the best possible outcome for those who, for whatever reason, are not offered a school of their choice.”

This year, there were 6385 primary school applications - 22 more than this time last year - from Buckinghamshire residents. Of these, 5538 were offered first preference.

Those who didn’t get any of their preferred schools equated to 3% , a drop from last year’s figure of 4.95%.

Cllr Mohammed added: “All children who have made an application have places offered and there are still close on 400 places remaining across the county.”

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