Academic year 2024/25

Secondary and primary school applications and offers

Data guidance

Published 13 June 2024

Description

This document describes the data included in the ‘Secondary and primary school applications and offers: 2024’ Official Statistics release’s underlying data files. This data is released under the terms of the Open Government License (opens in a new tab) and is intended to meet at least 3 stars for Open Data (opens in a new tab).

The methodology document for this subject should be referenced alongside this release. It provides information on the data sources, their coverage and quality and how the data is produced.

A guide for the 2024 data collection can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-preference-data-collections-guide (opens in a new tab).

Coverage

This release provides information on the number of applications made, the preferences listed and the number and preference level of offers for entries into:

• the main entry point for state-funded secondary school (usually year 7)
• state-funded primary school (reception year)

It includes national, regional and local authority level information on:

• the number of places available
• the number of applications received
• the number and percentage of first, second, non-preferred etc preference offers made
• the number and proportion of offers within and outside the home local authority

The information is based on the separate secondary and primary application and offer (preference) data collections returned by the local authorities.

File formats and conventions

Rounding

Primary and secondary suppression was applied in the 2014 dataset. No suppression has been applied from 2015 onwards

Conventions

The following convention is used throughout the underlying data.

‘c’         Suppressed (2014 only) 

‘z’         Not applicable.

Data files

All data files associated with this releases are listed below with guidance on their content. To download any of these files, please visit our data catalogue.

Secondary and primary schools applications and offers 2024

• Filename: appsandoffers_2024_la.csv
• Geographic levels: Local authority; National; Regional
• Time period: 2014/15 to 2024/25
• Content:
  Number of places and applications: number and proportion of offers by preference rank; number and proportion of offers inside and outside home local authority.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
admission_numbers	Number of admission places available
applications_received	Number of applications received
first_preference_offers	Number of first preference offers
first_preference_offers_percent	First preference rate
nc_year_admission	Year of admission
no_of_preferences	Number of preferences allowed
no_offer	Number made no offer
no_offer_percent	No offer rate
non_preferred_offer	Number of non preferred offers
non_preferred_offer_percent	Non preferred offer rate
offers_to_nonapplicants	Total number of offers to non applicants
one_of_the_three_preference_offers	Number of top three preference offers
one_of_the_three_preference_offers_percent	Top three preference rate
online_applications	Number of applications submitted online
online_apps_percent	Percentage of applications submitted online
preferred_school_offer	Number of preferred offers
preferred_school_offer_percent	Preferred offer rate
school_phase	School phase - collection phase
schools_in_another_la_offer	Number of offers in another LA
schools_in_another_la_offer_percent	Other LA offer rate
schools_in_la_offer	Number of offers in home LA
schools_in_la_offer_percent	Home LA offer rate
second_preference_offers	Number of second preference offers
second_preference_offers_percent	Second preference rate
third_preference_offers	Number of third preference offers
third_preference_offers_percent	Third preference rate

Grouped selective secondary application and offer data

• Filename: appsandoffers_2024_selectivegrouped.csv
• Geographic levels: National
• Time period: 2020/21 to 2024/25
• Content:
  Grouped number and proportion of secondary offers by preference rank split by a) the LAs who have one or more selective schools and b) LAs who have no selective schools

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
admission_numbers	Number of admission places available
admissions_group	Grouped figures by whether LA offers selective schools - selective groupings
applications_received	Number of applications received
first_preference_offers	Number of first preference offers
first_preference_offers_percent	First preference rate
no_offer	Number made no offer
no_offer_percent	No offer rate
non_preferred_offer	Number of non preferred offers
non_preferred_offer_percent	Non preferred offer rate
one_of_the_three_preference_offers	Number of top three preference offers
one_of_the_three_preference_offers_percent	Top three preference rate
preferred_school_offer	Number of preferred offers
preferred_school_offer_percent	Preferred offer rate
second_preference_offers	Number of second preference offers
second_preference_offers_percent	Second preference rate
third_preference_offers	Number of third preference offers
third_preference_offers_percent	Third preference rate