School admissions in England, the 2015 intake
How the 2015 round turned out: who applied, and who was offered the school they asked for.
This is the 2015 round. It is complete and the figures do not change, but a more recent one has been published: the 2026 intake.
Figures on this page cover every school and council for the 2015 intake. The home page chart covers only schools with a figure in every year, so its totals are lower.
Reception, September 2015
636,008 families named a primary school as their first choice for September 2015.
That is 1% fewer than in 2016, the highest year we hold, when it was 641,271.
87.8% of families were offered their first choice, and 95.9% were offered one of the three schools they named.
33.8% of primary schools received more first choices than they had offers to make, against 33.6% in 2014.
| Families naming a primary school first | 636,008 |
| Offered their first choice | 87.8% |
| Offered one of the three schools they named | 95.9% |
| Schools that received more first choices than they had offers to make | 33.8% |
| Schools counted | 15,784 |
Year 7, September 2015
525,564 families named a secondary school as their first choice for September 2015.
That is 15% fewer than in 2023, the highest year we hold, when it was 617,067.
84.2% of families were offered their first choice, and 95.0% were offered one of the three schools they named.
35.5% of secondary schools received more first choices than they had offers to make, against 33.6% in 2014.
| Families naming a secondary school first | 525,564 |
| Offered their first choice | 84.2% |
| Offered one of the three schools they named | 95.0% |
| Schools that received more first choices than they had offers to make | 35.5% |
| Schools counted | 3,047 |
What this does not tell you
It describes demand. It does not indicate whether any particular child would be offered a place.
These are national figures. A council where first choices fell still contains schools that turned children away, and a council where they rose still contains schools with places left over. For one school, read its own page.
Other intake years
The 2014 intake · The 2016 intake
Source: Department for Education, Primary and secondary school applications and offers. Published each June for the September that follows. Figures for a given intake do not change once published. This page as Markdown. What we hold.