Primary school places allocated in Cornwall

16 April 2019, 11:39

Parents of children heading to primary schools across Cornwall in September have been finding out which school they will be going to.

Cornwall Council received 5555 applications this year, with almost 95% being offered a place at their first preference school.

While 98% of applicants have been offered a place at one of their three preferences.

Cornwall Council’s Cabinet Member for Children and Wellbeing, Sally Hawken, said: ''Competition for school places is growing and we are pleased so many children and families have the news they wanted on National Offer Day. 

''A lot of hard work goes into coordinating this process and I would like to thank the School Admissions Team and the schools across Cornwall for their support in ensuring as many children as possible can attend their preferred school.''

Cornwall Council says it recognises some families may be disappointed by their allocation. Cornwall has 227 schools with reception classes and this year 78 of those are full after the first round of allocations compared to 72 at this time last year. 

Head of Education Access and Sufficiency, Sharon Hindley, added: ''We recognise there are some areas where competition for places is very high and that’s why over the last ten years Cornwall Council has invested more than 75 million pounds into the infrastructure of schools in Cornwall, creating an additional 2,500 new pupil places.

''We are continuing to plan for the demand on places in the future to ensure as many children as possible can access a place at a local school, if they wish to.''

The number of oversubscribed schools is expected to increase as late applications for places are processed over the next few weeks.  Late applications are always a concern for the Council as they reduce the chance of families getting a preferred school. 

The School Admissions Team, in partnership with the Family Information Service, works hard each year to get the message out to families through various channels including social media and early years settings, but they have still received more than 97 late applications so far this year.

Sally Hawken concluded: ''We have seen a drop in the number of late applications, but it is still higher than we would like.  We will continue to work with parents, schools and early years settings to try and bring this figure down further.''