90 per cent of pupils offered first primary school choice

Primary school places have been announced today (16 April) and government figures show that 97.2 per cent of pupils were offered one of their top three primary schools.

The DfE says that this is thanks to the creation of 825,000 new school places since 2010.

School Standards Minister Nick Gibb said: “A good primary school education lays the foundations for success at secondary school and beyond, so it is right that we help make sure every child reaches their potential from the moment they start their education. That’s why we’re investing £5.8 billion to create even more good schools and good school places – building on the 825,000 we’ve created since 2010 – resulting in 9 out of 10 pupils securing one of their top three choices of schools.”

Investment in primary education and a reform of the primary curriculum has lead to standards rising, the DfE has said.

The latest performance data for primary schools shows that the gap between disadvantaged pupils and others in a combined measure of English, reading and mathematics has decreased in each of the last six years, narrowing by 1.3 per cent in the latest year and 10.5 per cent since 2011.


There are now 154,000 more six-year-olds on track to become fluent readers than in 2012.


Figures also show that in 2017 72 per cent met the expected standard in reading, 75 per cent in maths and 77 per cent in grammar, punctuation and spelling.


Gibb continued: "Thanks to our reforms and the hard work of teachers, academic standards in our primary schools are rising across the country. Our young readers are among the best in the world, the proportion of primary school pupils reaching the expected standards in reading, writing and maths standards went up 8 percentage points last year and the attainment gap between children from wealthier and poorer backgrounds has narrowed by 10.5 per cent since 2011."