Almost 90 per cent of all pupils in Newham have been offered one of their first three preferred secondary schools on National Offer Day (2 March).
A total of 4,359 Newham residents applied for places in the borough’s schools, starting last September, by the national closing date of 31 October 2019, with more than 94 per cent offered a place at one of their preferred schools according to London wide admission data.
In Newham, there has been a slight drop on the number of pupils offered first choice (1.15 %) from the previous year. However, this improved slightly in the number of pupils offered a place in one of their first three preferred schools. Newham has successfully worked with its family of schools to offer the best placements to most families.
Councillor Julianne Marriott, Lead Member for Education said: “Moving to secondary school is a huge step for our young people. I’m really pleased that we have been able to offer a place for 4113 pupils in Newham at one of their preferred schools. The demand for secondary schools continues to grow and we have been working with the local schools to provide extra places. Our “Places for All” strategy in 2019 still remains. At that time, we allocated £24m to increase the number of secondary places through expansions of existing schools to meet the rise in demand for places.”
Only 243 pupils could not be offered a place at any of their preferred schools and this has improved since 2019. These pupils were allocated alternative places at the closest school to their home with places remaining.
In Newham, 210 children were offered places in their preferred school outside of the borough and 281 children from outside Newham were offered places in Newham, with 53 of them already having a sibling at a school here.
A total of 97.43 per cent of Newham families applied on line via the Pan London eAdmissions portal. There were 114 late applicants, who will also be offered places. Places are still available at Eastlea Community School and Rokeby School.