Today’s education in the media blog focuses on the deadline for applying for secondary school places.
Deadline for secondary school places
The deadline for parents who need to apply for a secondary school place for their child is fast approaching. Parents of children in year 6 have until 31 October 2017 to choose their preferred schools and the department has been raising awareness via social media.
Parents have an excellent chance of their child going to one of their top choices; in 2017 83.5 per cent of applicants for a secondary school place received an offer of their first preference school while 94.6 per cent received an offer from one of their top three preferences.
With 89 per cent of schools now rated good or outstanding by Ofsted, the choice for parents is becoming easier. The effect of this is that 1.8million more children are now in good or outstanding schools than in 2010.
A Department for Education spokesperson said:
Local authorities have a statutory duty to ensure that there is a school place available for every child. We have allocated £5.8 billion of basic need funding between 2015 and 2020 to enable them to do this, and over 735,000 additional pupil places were created between 2010 and 2016. This money is given to councils based on their own estimates of the number of places they will need.
We also know that a vast majority of parents are securing a place for their child at their first choice of secondary school – 83.5 per cent this year, with more than 94 per cent having received offers at one of their top three choices.
Click here to apply for schools in your area.