These statistics provide the number of offers made to applicants for secondary and primary school places to start in September 2021, and the proportion which received preferred offers.
The data is collected from local authorities. The offers were made, and data collected, based on the national offer days of 1 March 2021 (secondary) and 16 April 2021 (primary).
Figures are provided at national, regional and local authority level. A time series is provided going back to 2014, when primary data was collected for the first time following the introduction of the first primary national offer day.
The application and offer data is gathered at pupil level from which school level figures can be produced. Contact the department at school.preference@education.gov.uk for more information about accessing this dataset.
Find and download files used in the production of this release.
Explore our range of data and build your own tables from it.
Secondary applications
605,200 applications were received for a place at secondary school in 2021. Applications had been increasing since 2014 until their first decrease between 2019 and 2020. The number of applications in 2021 represents an increase back to 2019 levels.
Secondary results
The proportion of secondary applicants receiving an offer of their first choice school has dropped to 81.1% - down from 82.2% in 2020.
This figure will have been affected by the delay to the selective school tests. This meant that in some local authorities parents and carers could name selective schools on the form when their child may not have reached the standard required to be eligible for an offer. The comparative first preference rates for the last two years are provided in the chart below.
The proportion of applicants who received an offer of any of their preferred secondary schools was stable at 95.5% (95.6% in 2020).
A timeseries of key results from 2014 are provided in the following table.
Secondary geographical variation
At local authority level the three highest first preference rates were achieved in 2021 by:
Northumberland has had the highest first preference rate in this measure for the last six years. Barnsley’s first preference rate was an increase of 3.5% on their 2020 figure (93.5%).
For the first time, the local authority with the lowest first preference rate was not in London.
However, Slough was one of the local authorities with selective schools where the test result was not known by the application deadline.
In London, the higher number of practical options available to applicants and the ability to name six schools may encourage parents and carers to make more speculative choices for their top preferences.
As expected, there is much less variation in the proportions receiving any preferred offer compared to those for receiving a first preference.
Secondary cross local authority offers
An applicant can apply to their local authority for any school, including those situated in another local authority.
In 2021 92.2% of secondary offers made were of schools inside the home authority. This figure reached a low of 91.4% in 2017/18 but has been very gradually increasing since then.
Primary applications
580,800 applications were received for a place at primary school in 2021, a 5.1% decrease on 2020.
This contrasts to a 0.5% increase in applications between 2019 and 2020.
There are likely to be a number of reasons behind this drop in applications:
Primary results
The proportion of primary applicants receiving an offer of their first choice school has increased to 91.8% - up from 90.2% in 2020. The data suggests that, in general, where local authorities have had drops in applications, this has enabled them to make a higher proportion of first preference offers.
The proportion of applicants who received an offer of any of their preferred primary schools also increased, to 98.4% in 2021 (from 97.8%).
A timeseries of key results from 2014 are provided in the following table.
Primary geographical variation
At local authority level the three highest first preference rates were achieved in 2021 by:
Redcar and Cleveland also had the highest first preference rate in 2020, and Northumberland has been in the top three since 2019.
As in previous years, the lowest first preference rates at primary level are all in London:
Kensington and Chelsea has been in the bottom three since 2015.
The only non-London local authority in the bottom ten was:
The higher number of practical options available to London applicants and ability to name six preferences may encourage parents and carers to make more speculative choices for their top preferences.
As expected, there is much less variation in the proportions receiving any preferred offer compared to those for receiving a first preference.
Primary cross local authority offers
An applicant can apply to their local authority for any school, including those situated in another local authority.
In 2021 96.9% of primary offers made were of schools inside the home authority. This figure has been stable for the past few years.
This release concentrates on the headline figures for the proportion of children receiving their first preference or a preferred offer.
However, the data provides more information including:
These are Official Statistics and have been produced in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
This can be broadly interpreted to mean that the statistics:
Once statistics have been designated as Official Statistics it is a statutory requirement that the Code of Practice shall continue to be observed.
The Department has a set of statistical policies in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
Find out more about the standards we follow to produce these statistics through our Standards for official statistics published by DfE guidance.
View methodology for Secondary and primary school applications and offers.
If you have a specific enquiry about Secondary and primary school applications and offers statistics and data:
Email
school.preference@education.gov.uk
Telephone: Helen Bray
0370 000 2288
If you have a media enquiry:
Telephone
020 7783 8300
If you have a general enquiry about the Department for Education (DfE) or education:
Telephone
037 0000 2288
Explore our range of data and build your own tables from it.
Create tables