More than ninety-six per cent of parents in County Durham have secured their first choice primary school for their children this year, figures have revealed.

Parents across the country found out this week if their children have secured a place to study at their choice of primary school for the next academic year.

The places are allocated by the local authority and depend on location, whether siblings are already at the school and religion.

Those who do not secure any school from their preference list are allocated to the school closest to their home address.

Durham County Council has confirmed that a total of 4,599 children were offered a primary school place across the county, and 4,491 (96.82 per cent) got their first preference.

Second preference was secured by 99 parents and nine were given their third. Forty children were not allocated a place for the schools on their preference form.

In North Yorkshire, just under 99 per cent of families received an offer from one of their top three preferences for a school, up from a total of 95.67 per cent last year.

A total of 5,304 pupils are set to begin primary school across the county this September, and North Yorkshire Council’s assistant director for education, learning and skills, Amanda Newbold said she is "delighted" with the figures.

Nationally, other areas where high proportions obtained their first preference included Shropshire, at 98.2 per cent, and Cornwall, with 97.6 per cent.

Official data shows that last year 92.5 per cent of pupils across England were offered their first choice – up slightly from 92.2 per cent in 2022.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “Many parents will be excited at getting their chosen school, but some will inevitably be disappointed.

“Last year the number of families receiving their first primary school preference increased to 92.5 per cent against a background of a fall in the overall number of primary-age children, and it is likely that we’ll see a similar or increased acceptance rate this year.

“However, this is unlikely to be evenly spread because of local factors – such as housebuilding – and particularly the pressure on places at schools which tend to be in more affluent areas and have ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ Ofsted ratings.”

Darlington Borough Council has also been approached for its admission statistics.

Data from 2022 to 2023 reveals that just 80 schools across the North East were over capacity.

 

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In that year, Wheatley Hill Community Primary School in Durham was the most over-subscribed and took on 45 more pupils than it had capacity for.

New York Primary School in North Shields was also over-subscribed and registered 37 more pupils over its capacity.

Comparatively, there were 551 schools in the North West which were over capacity.