Almost 90 per cent of Nottinghamshire parents secure first preference primary school place

Primary school places are being revealed today.

Nottinghamshire County Council has today, Thursday, 16th April, contacted 9,172 parents to let them know which school their son or daughter is to attend from September.

It was calculated that 96.9 per cent of parents have got a place at one of their preferred schools.

Of the remainder, 283 (3 per cent of applicants) have been offered a place at a school they didn’t state on their application. Of these, 50.8 per cent of parents only made a single preference.

The county council said it had done all it could to ensure parents send their child to a school they wanted.

John Slater, service director for education standards at the county council, said: “The situation as a whole continues to be encouraging as the majority of parents will be getting a school for which they made a choice.

“I am very happy that every child in Nottinghamshire, whose parents applied within the deadline date, will have a primary school place in September 2015.”

Mr Slater added: “As an authority we are not complacent as we are aware of the pressures within the system and the increasing number of children coming through. We are already making plans to deal with such pressures in the years to come.”

The council is investing nearly £37m until 2016/17 expanding and upgrading schools across the county to meet demand arising from the natural increase in the county’s birth rates, subject to Basic Need funding from central government.

Over the last two years, more than 2,000 permanent primary places have been created, with around a thousand more planned for the start of the 2015 school year. Availability of these extra places is subject to planning approval and uninterrupted building schedules.

Mr Slater added: “There are particular ‘pinch points’ across the county such as in parts of Broxtowe, Mansfield and West Bridgford, in terms of seeing a rapid increase in the number of primary aged children, but the Council is responding in terms of planning for the additional places it is creating. However, these areas may not remain consistent from year to year as parental preferences change.”

Mr Slater also assured late applicants that a school place would be available for their child in September 2015.

Parents have right to appeal about their child’s school place and all appeals are wholly independent.

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