On the day that parents and carers across London are told which secondary school their children have been offered places at, Lambeth Council has revealed that offers were made to 2,435 applicants this year, 1,499 of whom were offered their first preference. This meant that 61% of Lambeth children have been offered their first preference of secondary school.
The overall figures do not include pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan, as they apply through a separate process.
The co-ordinated school admissions process enables parents and carers to choose schools in Lambeth and in other boroughs. With so many good local schools to choose from, it is inevitable that unfortunately not all children will be able to be offered their first preference. Nevertheless, Lambeth continues to be able to offer the majority of parents and carers a school from their preferences and have enough year 7 places overall for residents to choose from.
Word from the Cabinet
Cllr Ben Kind, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said: “We know that schools are facing a financial crunch because of falling birth rates, an unfair funding formula and outward migration from the capital due to Brexit. Despite these pressures, they are still able to keep doing excellent work and offer a place to every child who chooses to attend secondary school in Lambeth.
“Our system is much less uncertain than it used to be. Our schools and education services have worked hard to remove from the system as much of the uncertainty and anxiety families used to feel about where their children might go to school and how a child’s future depended on whether they got an offer or not.
“We look forward to welcoming all these young pupils to class, along with their classmates and future friends, in September”
The picture across London
Across London as a whole, 94 per cent of children have been offered a place at one of their preferred schools. Figures released today by the Pan London Admissions Board, the body with overall responsibility for the co-ordination of school admissions in the capital, show that 70 per cent of children applying to London schools got into their first preference school, a 0.1 per cent decrease on last year.
Overall, 89 per cent of London pupils were offered a place at one of their top three choices of secondary school.
