Today, Tuesday 16 April, is primary school offer day. This is the day that parents are notified of the primary school that has offered their child a place for September. This has been covered by BBC Online, the Guardian, the Independent, the Times, I News, and the Mirror.
Last year 97.7% of parents got one of their top three choices, with 91% of these being their first choice. These numbers have been gradually improving since 2014 despite rising pupil numbers during this period.
School standards have also been rising – 87% of primary schools are now rated Good or Outstanding, compared to 67% in 2010.
To ensure that every child has access to a good school place, the government is on track to create one million new school places by the end of this decade – the largest increase for two generations. There have been 921,000 school places created since 2010, with 636,000 of these in primary schools.
School Standards Minister Nick Gibb said:
Any school place offer day is a big event for families, but parents should be reassured that the improvement in the school system means that they would probably find the schools themselves unrecognisable from a generation ago.
The curriculum has been revitalised, the phonics check is helping thousands of six-year-olds become fluent readers, the Teaching for Mastery programme means many pupils are being taught maths using world leading techniques and the gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers is falling.
What this means in practice is that even in instances where parents aren’t getting the news they hoped for today, the likelihood is that their child will be attending a school which will provide a first-class education.
Follow us on Twitter and don't forget to sign up for email alerts.