Council delighted after ranking top for school placements

More children in Shropshire will be heading to schools of their choosing in September than anywhere else in the West Midlands, new figures show.

Statistics released by the Department for Education place Shropshire at the top of league tables for secondary school placements, with 98.4% of pupils offered a place at one of their ranked preferred schools. A total of 89.7% went to their first preference school.

For primary schools, the authority ranks second overall, just behind Herefordshire, with 99.8% of children being offered a place at one of their preferred primary schools

The figures place Shropshire Council ahead of national averages, which see 96% of pupils in England going to one of their preferred secondary schools, with the figure at 98.8% for primary school children.

David Shaw, Assistant Director of Education and Achievement, Shropshire Council said the authority was “delighted” with the statistics.

“Notably the percentage of on-time applicants who received their first preference is higher than it has been in any of the last ten years. Likewise, the percentage of pupils who received an offer of one of their preferred schools is higher than it has been over the last ten years, which is tremendous news,” he said.

“This follows a challenging year when a national growth in the numbers of pupils transferring to secondary school this September saw a record number of applications for places.”

While numbers of secondary applications have grown nationally, Shropshire saw a small reduction in the amount of applications handled at 2971 for places, down from 3024 in 2023/24.

Primary school applications were also down slightly, from 2617 in the previous year to 2572, against a national trend of falling applications which saw a 2.3% drop in the number of applicants for a place at primary school, to around 555,600. 

The Department for Education says applications have been falling since 2020, which it attributes to a drop in birth rates nationally from 2016 onwards.

“This is therefore great news for our children and families, who deserve the best education possible,” added Mr Shaw.

“Our teams have worked hard over many years to ensure that as many children as possible are able to attend their preferred school. The council’s long-term strategy, of securing the right number of school places, in the right locations and at the right time, has been highly successful and has contributed in no small part to these results.”

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