Thousands of anxious parents receive secondary school offers

Over half a million eleven-year-olds will have now found out if they have received an offer of a place at their preferred secondary school on what has become known as ‘national offer day.’According to the Department for Education, last year, 95 per cent of parents received an offer at one of their top three preferred secondary schools. But, 84,000 families also lost out on their preferred choice – a rise of over 7,000 on the previous year.The Local Government Association (LGA), which represents over 370 councils across England, has issued its concerns over the rising numbers of applications to already oversubscribed schools. Figures from the LGA show that 3,287,000 secondary school places will be needed in 2024, compared with 2,740,000 in 2015.Commenting on this year’s secondary school allocations, Cllr Roy Perry, Chairman of the Local Government Association's Children and Young People Board, said, "Councils have a statutory duty to ensure every child has a school place available to them but find themselves in the difficult position of not being able to ensure schools, including academies, expand.”"Councils have already created an extra 300,000 primary places,” said Cllr Roy Perry, “but those children will soon need to move up to secondary schools.  Councils will do everything they can to rise to the challenge of ensuring no child goes without a place, but all schools must play their part too. If academies are not willing to expand, then powers to create new schools should be returned to local authorities themselves if they are unable to secure high quality free school sponsors in their communities."Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, Lucy Powell MP claims that one in six secondary schools are already at or overcapacity. At the same time, forecasts show there will be more than 300,000 additional secondary school pupils in the system by 2020.As a consequence it is anticipated that there will be a rise in the numbers of official appeals for school places. In the new annual Relocate Global Guide to International Education and Schools, education experts and school leaders offer their insights into some of the unique issues that internationally relocating families face when selecting education options for their child. Included in the Guide is invaluable advice from education consultants on securing schools places and how to go about making a successful appeal for a school place.To order copies, download an order form (387k) , complete it using your keyboard, and email, fax or post it to us.

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