JUST under 90 per cent of parents and carers in North Yorkshire secured their first secondary school preference for their child.

A total of 89.84 per cent secured their first preference with 96.4 per cent of all families in the county who requested a school place receiving an offer from North Yorkshire County Council (NYCC) for one of their top three preferences of secondary school.

This year, 6,262 North Yorkshire pupils are transferring to secondary school.

NYCC’s executive member for education, learning and skills, Cllr Annabel Wilkinson, said: “Once again, so many of our families have gained the first preference from their choice of schools, which is great news.”

Within North Yorkshire, parents can preference up to five schools on their common application form. 

A NYCC spokesperson said that this year some parents did not make “full use” of the opportunity to select up to five schools, adding that some parents of Year 6 children did not complete a common application form for a secondary place.

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As a result, they said NYCC, which must ensure that each child is allocated a school place on national offer day (March 1), has had to place children in schools which in some cases are further way from their home.

The spokesperson said the council’s admissions team “will make every effort to accommodate parental wishes” if parents contact them following national offer day.

For more details, visit www.northyorks.gov.uk/schooladmissions or email schooladmssions@northyorks.gov.uk

For children currently in Year 5 who are due to start secondary school in September 2024, parents and carers will be able to apply from September 12, 2023, and are urged make use of the opportunity to list five school preferences on the form.