# School admissions in England, the 2023 intake

How the 2023 admissions round turned out across England: how many families applied, how many were offered the school they asked for, and how that compares with earlier years. Every figure here counts every school and council we hold for that year.

It describes demand. It does not indicate whether any particular child would be offered a place.

## Reception, September 2023

568,345 families named a primary school as their first choice for September 2023.

That is 11% fewer than in 2016, the highest year we hold, when it was 641,271.

Against 2020, three years earlier, it is 7% lower.

92.5% of families were offered their first choice, and 98.3% were offered one of the three schools they named.

22.4% of primary schools received more first choices than they had offers to make, against 33.6% in 2014.

| Figure | 2023 |
|---|---:|
| Families naming a primary school first | 568,345 |
| Offered their first choice | 92.5% |
| Offered one of their three | 98.3% |
| Schools with more first choices than offers | 22.4% |
| Schools counted | 15,916 |

## Year 7, September 2023

617,067 families named a secondary school as their first choice for September 2023.

That is the highest figure in the 13 years we hold.

Against 2020, three years earlier, it is 3% higher.

82.6% of families were offered their first choice, and 94.1% were offered one of the three schools they named.

43.0% of secondary schools received more first choices than they had offers to make, against 33.6% in 2014.

| Figure | 2023 |
|---|---:|
| Families naming a secondary school first | 617,067 |
| Offered their first choice | 82.6% |
| Offered one of their three | 94.1% |
| Schools with more first choices than offers | 43.0% |
| Schools counted | 3,204 |

## Appeals, 2023

In 2023, families in England lodged 53,085 appeals against a school place decision. 40,006 were heard by a panel and 7,938 succeeded.

The other 13,079 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 Most appeals that do not are withdrawn because a place comes up first, so a share worked out over every appeal lodged would understate what panels actually decided.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. 20.9% of secondary appeals heard that year succeeded, against 9.5% 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 | 9,628 | 1,580 | 16.4% |
| Primary (infant classes) | 6,424 | 611 | 9.5% |
| Secondary | 30,379 | 6,358 | 20.9% |
| Total | 40,006 | 7,938 | 19.8% |

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.

## Where these figures come from

Department for Education, Primary and secondary school applications and offers. Counts of applications and offers are published each June for the September that follows.

Department for Education, Admission appeals in England, published each August. Covers 152 councils. A share that succeeded is always taken over appeals heard by a panel.

Full page: https://www.schoolrecord.co.uk/intake/2023