Five out of six Surrey pupils offered their first choice secondary school

Surrey has offered 85% of pupils their first preference secondary school after processing a record number of applications.

On secondary school ‘national offer day’, the proportion of Surrey applicants given one of their top three preferred schools rose to 95%.

Figures from Surrey County Council also show that the number of secondary school applications topped 11,000 for the first time.

A total of 11,132 Surrey pupils applied for places for September 2016 – an increase of more than 200 on last year.

With 96% of Surrey secondary schools now rated good or outstanding by Ofsted, the figures highlight the growing demand for secondary education in the county.

The figures show:

* 84.5% of Surrey applicants were offered their first preference school – up from 82.4% last year
* 94.6% of Surrey applicants were offered one of their top three preferences – up from 93.3% last year
* 11,132 Surrey residents applied for secondary school places – up 1.9% from 10,929 last year

Linda Kemeny, Surrey County Council’s Cabinet Member for Schools, Skills and Educational Achievement, said: ‘I’m pleased we’ve been able to offer the vast majority of Surrey pupils a school of their choice and this in a year when more than 11,000 applicants are seeking places – the highest ever number.

‘With 94 per cent now rated good or outstanding by Ofsted, Surrey secondary schools are increasingly popular and we make every effort to provide extra places where they are most wanted.

‘But applications to primary schools have been rising steadily and these pupils are beginning to transfer to secondary schools so demand for secondary places in many parts of the county will continue to grow strongly in future.

‘We need to create more than 11,000 extra school places across our primaries and secondaries over the next five years but it is becoming harder and harder to pay for the places we need because demand is not being matched by extra funding from the Government, leaving us with a shortfall of £30million in each of the next two years alone.’

* The table below shows the number of offers made by each secondary school to Surrey parents who named the school as their first preference, second preference and third preference. Parents can state six preferences in total. In addition, offers may have been made to applicants who live outside the county.