Parents in Herefordshire join those across England today (Monday 1 March), in finding out which secondary school their child will be attending in September 2021.

Herefordshire Council has made 1835 offers of places in schools across the county compared to 1763 in 2020, with the following parental preference success rates:

  • First preference: 1648 offers, which is 89.8% of the total offers
  • Second preference: 90 offers, which is 4.9 % of the total offers with a cumulative success rate of 94.7%
  • Third preference: 25 offers, which is 1.4% of the total offers with a cumulative success rate of 96%

In comparison to last year over 70 more children were offered school places in the county this resulted in a slight downturn in the numbers of parents getting a school in one of their three preferences (96% compared to 98.2% in 2020).

The remaining 72 places offered (3.9%), were to parents whose preferences could not be met and their offer was for the nearest school to their home address with available spaces.

As in previous years, Herefordshire schools continue to be a net importer of pupils, with more pupils from neighbouring counties requesting places in the county’s schools than Herefordshire pupils requesting places in other counties.

There are currently as of today’s date 5 Herefordshire secondary schools with waiting lists and 4 have available spaces.

11 pupils who did not apply for a school place will be allocated a place at the nearest school to their home address with spaces at the end of March.

The council has continued to promote its online application service to parents again this year. This year 94.4% applied online compared to 94.2% last year.