Majority get their first choice Central Beds school place

Children across Central Bedfordshire have found out today where they will be starting school or transferring to middle school in September.
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And it’s good news for the majority with 95.6 per cent of the 3,371 pupils who applied for a place at a lower or primary school in Central Bedfordshire for the 2017/18 academic year granted their first preference.

That continues the upward trend with 94 per cent getting their first preference Central Beds school last year and 92.5 per cent in 2015.

Of those on-time applicants that didn’t, 2.9 per cent got their second preference, 0.6 per cent achieved their third preference and the remaining 0.9 per cent will be allocated an alternative school which has places available.

Meanwhile, 94.4 per cent of the 2,482 Central Bedfordshire pupils transferring to middle school were offered their first preference.

A further 2.7 per cent have received their second preference and 0.2 per cent their third preference school.

Sue Harrison, the council’s Director of Children’s Services, said: “I know that this is always a nervous time of year for many families so I am delighted that so many of them have received their first-preference school.

“Our school admissions team works incredibly hard to make sure that as many on-time applicants as possible receive their first preference and this is reflected in the continual rise here in the numbers of children who do.

“We did a lot of work to encourage families to apply on time – and also to do so online as anyone applying this way will be the first to know. So I am very pleased that 88 per cent of all starting school applications and 94 per cent of transfer to middle applications were made this way.”

All online applicants have received an email with their offer, with offer letters being sent out by second-class post today.

Anyone who wishes to change the place their child has been offered needs to submit a change of preference form by May 2. These will then be considered – along with any late applications – on June 5.

For more information, including a school-by-school breakdown, visit http://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/school/admissions/2017/starting-school/offers.aspx

http://www.centralbedfordshire.gov.uk/school/admissions/2017/transfer-middle/offers.aspx