IT'S a big day for children across Herefordshire as secondary school offers are sent out across the county.

Parents in Herefordshire join those across England today (March 1) in finding out which secondary school their child will be attending in September 2023.

Herefordshire Council said it has made 1,810 offers of places in schools across the county compared to 1,860 in 2022, with the following parental preference success rates:

  • First preference: 1,640 offers, which is 90.6 per cent of the total offers.
  • Second preference: 120 offers, which is 6.6 per cent of the total offers with a cumulative success rate of 97.2 per cent.
  • Third preference: 10 offers, which is 0.55% of the total offers with a cumulative success rate of 97.8 per cent.

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There has been a slight increase in the numbers of parents getting a school in one of their three preferences this year, Herefordshire Council said (97.8 per cent compared to 96.5 per cent in 2022).

The remaining 39 places offered (2.2 per cent), were to parents whose preferences could not be met and their offer was for the nearest school to their home address with available spaces.

As in previous years, Herefordshire schools continue to be a net importer of pupils, with more pupils from neighbouring counties requesting places in the county’s schools than Herefordshire pupils requesting places in other counties.

Herefordshire offered 99 places and neighbouring counties offered 88 places to Herefordshire children.

There are currently as of today’s date four Herefordshire secondary schools with waiting lists and five have available spaces.

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The remaining five schools are at their published admissions number for the year group.

In total, 17 known pupils who did not apply for a school place will be allocated a place at the nearest school to their home address with spaces at the end of March.

The council has continued to promote its online application service to parents again this year. This year 90.3 per cent applied online compared to 86.3 per cent last year.