86% of Surrey pupils offered their first choice primary school

Eighty-six per cent of Surrey children who applied for Reception Class places this year were offered their first choice school.

Almost all applicants – 96 per cent – were allocated one of their top three preferred schools.

Mary Lewis, Surrey County Council’s Cabinet Member for Education, said: “I’m really pleased we’ve been able to offer so many families their first choice primary school. It’s testament to the hard work of everyone involved in creating the school places we need – especially considering that primary pupil numbers have been going up quite sharply until recently.

“There weren’t quite so many families applying this year as last, but there are parts of Surrey where demand for places is going up. We know that across the Surrey school system – both primary and secondary level – we still need to create thousands more places but that mammoth task is putting a huge strain on our finances.

“Those extra places will be added on top of 18,000 we’ve already provided over the last seven years but there’s a shortfall in the Government funding we receive. By the end of the decade we’ll face a funding gap of £100 million which is why we’re continuing to press for fair funding for Surrey and we hope parents will back us.”

Figures for applications to Reception in September 2018 show:

*85.6% of Surrey applicants were offered their first preference school – down from 86.4% last year but up from 82.4% in 2016
*96.4% of Surrey applicants were offered one of their top three preferences – up from 96.1% last year
*All Surrey pupils who needed a place got one
*12,955 Surrey residents applied for places – down 1.2% from 13,115 last year

Figures for junior applications for September 2018 show:

*92.6% of Surrey applicants were offered their first preference school – up from 89.6% last year
*96.1% of Surrey applicants were offered one of their top three preferences – up from 94.6% last year
*All Surrey pupils who needed a place got one

*The table below shows the number of offers made by each school to Surrey parents who named the school as their first preference, second preference and third preference. Surrey parents can state four preferences in total. In the case of some schools, offers have also been made to applicants who live outside the county where they meet the admissions criteria for that school.