Hertfordshire County Council begins to allocate primary school places

Now the primary school admissions process has closed, Hertfordshire County Council is beginning to allocate school places.

The council aims to allow as many children as possible to get into one of their preferred schools. It has a good track record in this area with 96 per cent of applicants offered a place at one of their four ranked primary, junior or middle schools last year, and 86 per cent gaining their first preference.

The council invested £13m on additional permanent primary places for September 2016 on top of spending £170m between 2011 and 2015 to provide more than 3,000 additional reception places.

This year, 14,962 applications were received for primary, 2,430 for junior and 365 for middle schools. Parents will find out which school their child has been allocated in April.

David Williams, Cabinet Member for Enterprise, Education and Skills, said: “I understand that parents and carers want their children to attend the school they most prefer.

“We do everything we can to get children a place at their preferred school, and have invested millions to meet the growing demand for school places. However, we are not always able to completely satisfy parental preference and inevitably there will be some families who do not get a place they had hoped for.”

Parents are advised to check www.hertsdirect.org/admissions for any updates to the published admission arrangements or timescales. Details about new schools and additional places will also be published on the website.