The percentage of Warwickshire children offered one of their top three school choices climbs for the third year running!
Thousands of children across Warwickshire will be offered places at secondary schools today (Friday 1 March) with a record number of children being offered one of their top three school choices.
Today is National Offer Day, when Year 6 children and up and down the country learn which secondary school they will attend for the 2024/2025 academic year.
This year, there were 7,172 Warwickshire children who applied for a secondary place by the application deadline of 31 October, an increase of almost 7% on the previous year.
Of those, 81.4% have been offered a place at their first-choice school. A further 13.9% have been offered a place at another of their school choices, meaning a total of 95.3% have been offered a place at one of their top three preferred schools.
Almost all parents and carers now apply for their secondary school place online. They will receive an email, or can check their online parent portal, on Friday 1 March to get details of their school offer and instructions on what to do next. Letters to the remaining applicants have been posted.
In a move to bring the school admissions process in line with neighbouring counties, this is the first year in Warwickshire where for both the Secondary National Offer Day (1 March) and Primary National Offer Day (16 April), the Council will automatically accept school place offers on behalf of each family. This means that parents and carers don’t need to take any additional action beyond contacting the new school to confirm transition arrangements.
Cllr Kam Kaur, Portfolio Holder for Education at Warwickshire County Council said: “The growth in secondary school applications this year shows how popular our excellent schools are with families, and I’m delighted that so many children are being offered one of their preferred schools today. Meeting the challenge of growing demand from more housing has been one of our core education priorities and I am pleased we have been able to strategically plan for the creation of more provision across the county.
“The new arrangements, where we’re accepting places on behalf of parents, will also make the whole process as simple as possible, meaning less work for parents and carers to do, and allowing the admissions team to focus more of their time on placing children in schools.”
More information for parents and carers on school admissions is available at: https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/admissions