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Majority of Nottinghamshire parents receive their first preference for a secondary school

Nottinghamshire County Council has contacted thousands of parents and carers on national secondary school offer day (1 March), with the majority of those applying on time receiving their preferred school for their child.

Demand for places has risen in recent years and the council’s school admissions team received more than 9,600 applications this year. Despite this, 89.6 per cent of Nottinghamshire residents have received an offer of their first preference school, with 97.1 per cent receiving an offer from one of their listed preferences.

Councillor Tracey Taylor, Cabinet Member for Children and Families at Nottinghamshire County Council, said: “I’d like to thank everyone who applied to us on time for their child’s secondary school place for September. We continue to work hard with our schools to ensure that there are enough places for the county’s growing population and officers have been working with schools across the county to secure additional places locally.

“Moving to secondary school is a special time in a child’s education and I’m pleased that we continue our strong record in meeting parental preference. I also understand the disappointment where this is not the case and I’d like to reassure parents that we do our utmost to offer a preference school.        

“We are committed to providing sufficient high quality school places and the council has an ambitious programme of school expansions and new school builds that aims to meet the increasing demand for places as more families choose to live and work here in Nottinghamshire.”

Any parent who has not been offered a higher preference will automatically be added to the waiting list and parents have a right to submit an appeal for those preferences. Parents are advised to accept their child’s offer, even if they plan to appeal for another school, until they have confirmed alternative plans for their child’s education. 

The council follows the government’s school admissions code, which ensures that all school places for maintained schools and academies are allocated and offered in an open and fair way.

For further advice, parents can visit School admissions hub | Nottinghamshire County Council

Families of children starting primary school in September 2023 will receive their school offer place on Monday, 17 April 2023.