Nearly 90% of families get first choice of secondary school

A total of 88% of parents and carers in North Yorkshire secured their first secondary school preference for their child, continuing the high percentages of recent years.

In total, 93% of all families in the county who requested a school place received an offer from us for one of their top three preferences of secondary school.  This year’s cohort of North Yorkshire’s pupils transferring to secondary school was 6,205.

Amanda Newbold, our Assistant Director for Education and Skills said: “Once again, so many of our families have gained the first preference from their choice of schools, which is great news.  “We work alongside schools across the county to ensure they deliver the highest standards of education and so that children and young people can get the best possible start in life.”

Within North Yorkshire parents have the ability to preference up to five schools on their Common Application Form. Unfortunately, this year there has been a number of parents who have not made full use of this opportunity to select up to five schools and there has also been a rise in the number of parents of Year 6 children who have not completed a Common Application Form for a secondary place. 

We must ensure that each child is allocated a school place on national offer day and so have had to place children in schools which in some cases are further away from their home. Despite this, our admissions team have said every effort will be made to accommodate parental wishes if they contact them following national allocation day.  

You can find more details on our school admissions page or by emailing schooladmssions@northyorks.gov.uk.

For children currently in Year 5 who are due to start secondary school in September 2023, parents and carers can apply from September 12, 2022 and they are urged make use of the opportunity to list five school preferences on the form.