Letters to parents telling them the outcome of their applications for secondary school places for next year will be sent out on Tuesday, 1 March 2011. All local authorities have to send the letters out on the same date.
Nearly all parents in the East Riding of Yorkshire got places for their children at their preferred school. Of the 3,167 applications received, 3,102 (97.9 per cent) got places at their first choice school and 99.7 per cent got places at one of their three choices of school. Only eight children have had to be given places at
schools for which their parents did not express a preference. Of those eight children, seven have been given places at their catchment area school.
Eight out of ten parents named their catchment area school as their first choice.
The number of Year six children in East Riding primaries who will be transferring to secondary school in September is the smallest on record. With neighbouring local authorities also reporting small transferring year groups this year, the numbers allocated places at East Riding secondary schools have fallen and just three schools have been able to fill all the places they have available: Beverley Grammar School, Beverley High School and South Hunsley School. Including children from other local authorities’ areas who have been given places, there will be less than 3,500 children on roll in Year seven at East Riding schools in September, 200 fewer than last year.
Eighty four per cent of applications were submitted by parents using the online application form. Local authorities have been encouraged to promote the use of online services which are easy to access and available around the clock. The East Riding has one of the highest percentages of online applications in the country.
Councillor Julie Abraham, East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s portfolio holder for children and young people, said: “There is clearly a strong link between schools and their catchment areas, partly because of the rural nature of the East Riding but also because parents want their children to go to their local school. Parents find the current admissions processes easy to follow and I think they value the simplicity and predictability of the catchment area arrangements that we have in place. They also value the high quality of education provided by East Riding schools.”
Alison Michalska, East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s director of children, family and adult services, said: “The high proportion of parents getting places at schools they want their children to go to and the high proportion using our online form shows that we are providing a good, effective and easily accessible service.
The key problem for the future will be the effects of falling numbers of children feeding into our secondary schools. We have successful and popular schools but there are fewer children in the primary schools and therefore fewer progressing on to secondary education.”
