More than 79,000 children have missed out on a place at their first-choice secondary school for this September, official statistics figures reveal today.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said too many pupils – nearly one in six – would be going to a secondary school that was not their top choice.

The statistics break down the secondary school offers made to more than 512,000 children by 151 local authorities in England on 1 March.

They show that nationally: 

  • 84.6 per cent of children received an offer at their first-choice school. This is up 1.4 percentage points on last year.
  • 95.6 per cent were offered a place at one of their top three preferred schools. This is a 0.7 percentage point increase on 2010.

This year there were far fewer children applying for a similar number of secondary school places. The number of children decreased by 17,500 on 2010 while there were 1,200 fewer places available.

Schools Minister Nick Gibb said:

More than 79,000 children missed out on their first choice of secondary school, nearly one in six of the entire year group, and more than 22,000 do not even get into any of their top three schools.

These figures expose the fact that there simply aren’t enough good schools.

Too many parents are forced to choose between schools which don’t deliver the academic standards and good behaviour they demand.

Yesterday’s OECD report underlined the serious problems in our school system and showed how far we have fallen behind other leading countries over the past decade. That is why we are restoring the integrity of the curriculum and exams, and giving more powers to teachers.

Our reforms to education, with a focus on raising standards of behaviour, trusting teachers and encouraging new schools to be established, are designed to deliver higher standards and genuine choice for parents.

Only when every school is regarded by parents as a good school will we be able to remove the anxiety parents suffer when choosing a school for their children.

Regional headlines:

  • The North East had the highest percentage of first preference offers at 94.3 per cent.
  • Greater London had the lowest percentage at 66.2 per cent.

Specific local authorities: 

  • the Isle of Wight had the highest percentage of first preference offers, at 100 per cent, followed by Cornwall and North East Lincolnshire with 99 per cent and Central Bedfordshire with 98.6 per cent
  • apart from City of London (where there are no secondary schools), Slough had the lowest percentage of first preference offers at 46.2 per cent, followed by Southwark (52.5 per cent) and Wandsworth (55.5 per cent)
  • the biggest increase in first-choice preferences being met was in Trafford (11.5 percentage points), then North East Lincolnshire (11.4 percentage points)
  • the biggest decrease in a first-choices preferences being met was Westminster (down 7.7 percentage points), followed by Kensington and Chelsea (6.6 per cent) and Camden (6.5 percentage points).

London headlines:

Bexley had the highest percentage of first preference offers at 81.1 per cent, followed by Newham at 79.9 per cent.
Apart from City of London (where there are no secondary schools), Southwark had the lowest percentage at 52.5 per cent, followed by Wandsworth (55.5 per cent).

Notes to editors: 

  1. The statistics can be found on the Department's research and statistics website.
  2. Parents have the right of appeal against any application that has been turned down.

Contact details

Public Communication Unit: General enquiries
for general enquiries
Telephone: 0370 000 2288

Central newsdesk
for media enquiries
Telephone: 020 7783 8300