Increase in number of families applying for secondary school places in Devon

There’s been another increase in the number of children applying for a place at a secondary school in Devon this September.

Devon County Council today announced it was offering more than 98 per cent of families one of their three preferences.

In all, 94.1 per cent of the families who applied have been offered their first preference school with 3.7 per cent allocated their second preference and 0.4 per cent their third preference.

This means a total of 98.2 per cent of applicants were offered one of their three preferences.

This year the county council received 7,004 applicants from Devon pupils for a place at secondary school in September compared with 6,949 last year and 6,706 the year before.

In addition, 244 children from Torbay have been allocated a place in a Devon school with 107 from Plymouth, 79 from Dorset, 40 from Cornwall and nine from Somerset.

Parents will be notified of their places today and the county council’s admissions team will be available to deal with enquiries supported by the schools team at Devon’s Customer Service Centre.

Devon’s Cabinet member for schools, James McInnes, said: “It is very gratifying that we have been able to accommodate nearly every child in one of their three preferred schools.

“It is a testament to the hard work of our admissions and school organisation teams and the partnership and co-operation we have received from the heads and governors of Devon’s secondary schools.

“These are obviously early statistics and are quite likely to improve even more before September as appeals are heard and other factors are taken into account, such as parents not taking up places they have been offered.”