School admissions in England, the 2021 intake
How the 2021 round turned out: who applied, and who was offered the school they asked for.
This is the 2021 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 2021 intake. The home page chart covers only schools with a figure in every year, so its totals are lower.
Reception, September 2021
580,288 families named a primary school as their first choice for September 2021.
That is 10% fewer than in 2016, the highest year we hold, when it was 641,271.
Against 2018, three years earlier, it is 5% lower.
91.8% of families were offered their first choice, and 98.0% were offered one of the three schools they named.
23.7% of primary schools received more first choices than they had offers to make, against 33.6% in 2014.
| Families naming a primary school first | 580,288 |
| Offered their first choice | 91.8% |
| Offered one of the three schools they named | 98.0% |
| Schools that received more first choices than they had offers to make | 23.7% |
| Schools counted | 15,906 |
Year 7, September 2021
601,526 families named a secondary school as their first choice for September 2021.
That is 3% fewer than in 2023, the highest year we hold, when it was 617,067.
Against 2018, three years earlier, it is 4% higher.
81.1% of families were offered their first choice, and 93.4% were offered one of the three schools they named.
38.8% of secondary schools received more first choices than they had offers to make, against 33.6% in 2014.
| Families naming a secondary school first | 601,526 |
| Offered their first choice | 81.1% |
| Offered one of the three schools they named | 93.4% |
| Schools that received more first choices than they had offers to make | 38.8% |
| Schools counted | 3,175 |
What happened to families who were refused
In 2021, families in England lodged 53,524 appeals against a school place decision. 41,110 were heard by a panel and 7,823 succeeded.
The other 12,414 did not reach a panel. Most appeals that do not are withdrawn because a place comes up first, so a share worked out over every appeal lodged would understate what panels actually decided.
Success depends a great deal on the year group. 20.1% of secondary appeals heard that year succeeded, against 10.5% of appeals about an infant class. An infant class is capped at 30 children by law, so a panel can only agree where the place was refused by mistake, where the admission rules were not applied properly, or where the decision was one no reasonable council would have made.
This is a record of decisions already made. A panel hears one case at a time and decides it on what that family sets out, so these figures do not indicate what would happen in any particular appeal.
| Year group | Appeals heard | Succeeded | Share of those heard |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary | 11,239 | 1,823 | 16.2% |
| Primary (infant classes) | 8,082 | 849 | 10.5% |
| Secondary | 29,871 | 6,000 | 20.1% |
| Total | 41,110 | 7,823 | 19.0% |
Infant classes are counted inside the primary row as well as on their own, so these rows do not add up and are not meant to. Primary plus secondary is the total.
Source: Department for Education, admission appeals in England, published each August. Covers 151 councils. A share that succeeded is always taken over appeals heard by a panel, never over appeals lodged.
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 2020 intake · The 2022 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.