Exceptional demand for secondary school places

In Shropshire Council’s area, 3,026 children applied on time for places at secondary schools, with 89.7% – 2,713 children – offered their first preference school. All who applied on time have been offered a place, with 96.5% allocated one of their preferences, and 3.5% allocated an alternative preference.

A number of parents have contacted Shropshire Live this morning regarding issues in accessing information on placements from Shropshire Council.

Shropshire Council says that due to the very high volume of users trying to access the third party school admissions system via its website , users may receive an error message saying that the system is currently unavailable. If so, please try again later. In the meantime, Shropshire Council says its school admissions team are working to unlock accounts and offer letters are being sent by email this morning.

In Telford and Wrekin, for the second year running, over 95% of children were offered a place at one of their preferred secondary schools. The council received 2,376 on time applications for secondary schools and offered every applicant a school place.

In total, 2,264 (95.3 per cent) of pupils were offered a place at one of their preferred secondary schools in Telford and Wrekin - 1,959 (82.4 per cent) received their first preference, 232 (9.8 per cent) their second preference and 54 (2.3 per cent) their third preference.

Kirstie Hurst-Knight, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for children and education, said:

“This really is an exceptional year for the number of children seeking a secondary school place for September, and – like many other councils – we have seen our highest-ever number of applications.

“However, this is something we have known was coming, and is something we have long planned for. Though not everyone will be offered their preferred school, there are sufficient spaces across the county, and all children who applied on time have been offered a place at secondary school in September.

“We have been working closely with schools and are very grateful to those who have agreed to accommodate additional pupils.”

Councillor Shirley Reynolds (Lab), Cabinet Member for Children, Young people and Families said:

“We are delighted that this is another year when so many parents and carers (over 95%) have secured places for their children at one of their preferred secondary schools and when every single applicant has received a school place offer.

“This is also credit to our Council’s significant investment to expand schools’ capacity across the borough by hundreds of places.

“Over the past ten years, we have rebuilt and refurbished every secondary school in our borough to create more school places. We are committed to drive this investment forward over the coming years as well, so even more youngsters can attend their preferred local secondary school and benefit from modern spaces for growth and learning.”