Secondary school applicants offered one of their preferred schools by council, England

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• 88.21% to 94.09%
• 94.09% to 95.78%
• 95.78% to 97.03%
• 97.03% to 98.33%
• 98.33% to 99.55%

Boundaries: Council boundaries, May 2026, from the geography spine. Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

Source and licence

Publisher

Department for Education

Check it yourself

https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/primary-and-secondary-school-applications-and-offers

Licence

Open Government Licence – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence.

Retrieved

6 November 2026, 06:56 UTC

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Verification

! Latest check failed – showing figures verified against source 6 November 2026, 07:00 UTC Run at 10 November 2026, 11:33 UTC; the latest check failed, so these are the figures that matched the source in full at 6 November 2026, 07:00 UTC; they stand for up to 14 days while the failure is put right.

Notes

• The headline figures are the number and proportion of children receiving their first preference or a preferred offer.
• The data collected is the position as at the respective national offer day. The final numbers of pupils starting in specific schools is likely to be different due to late applicants, refusal of offers, subsequent offers made via a second offer round or the schools’ waiting lists, or successful appeals.
• The inclusion of a school by an applicant as one of their preferences does not mean that they meet the admissions criteria for that school.
• The local authority receives, and reports on, applications for a school place from parents/guardians who are living within their local authority. However, the applications are in all cases reported within these tables by the local authority to whom the application is made (that is, the one in which the child is resident).
• At secondary level the application is for the main entry point into secondary school in that local authority. For local authorities with more than one entry point, the intake with the largest number of places available is the one reported. Places at schools such as UTCs and Studio Schools whose intake is in year 10 (at age 14), and other schools who do not offer places via the co-ordinated admissions process, are not included in these figures.
• Central Bedfordshire’s 2025/26 secondary figures are for entry at year 9 and its 2026/27 figures for year 7: “Until 2025 this was year 7 for all local authorities except Central Bedfordshire, whose largest entry point was in year 9. In 2026 Central Bedfordshire's largest entry point became year 7 and so from that year all the data submitted is for year 7 entry.” (the DfE's methodology).
• The preference rates are calculated as a proportion of all applicants who expressed one or more preference.
• Local authorities must allow parents to express at least three preferences at each level (primary and secondary). In practice, different local authorities allow parents to express between three and six preferences.
• Where a preferred offer could not be made some local authorities, instead of making a non-preference offer, provide the applicants with a list of schools with availability to choose from. These will be listed as having received no offer.
• The local authorities are asked not to provide data on school places offered to children with an Education, Health and Care (EHC) Plan since the parents of these children were not required to apply for their school place.
• The Department for Education gives London as Inner and Outer London, not as a region, so London has no regional figure here.
• Barnsley and Sheffield are given under their codes from before 1 April 2025, as the Department for Education gives them.
• The Department for Education publishes these as official statistics. Its data is released under the Open Government Licence, as its data guidance says; it names no version.