Families across Bristol offered their secondary school places

Today (1 March) on National Offer Day, families across Bristol will receive offers of secondary school places across the city. All families who applied to Bristol schools will be offered a place.

This year 4,900 applications were received – a 6% increase on last year when 4,625 applications were received. 96% of families have been offered one of their top three preferences and 72% of families were offered their first choice.

Councillor Anna Keen, Cabinet Member for Education and Skills, said:

“This is another year where we have seen more children than ever before looking for places in Bristol. This is a good indication of our improving reputation as a Learning City and good evidence of the success of our work as a partnership to improve standards across the city.

“I am pleased that we have been able to offer lots of families their first choice this year. For those who still have concerns about their application, I’d encourage them to get in touch with our admissions team. With a vast increase in numbers of applications predicted for secondary schools as the city’s population continues to grow we are facing a huge challenge in order to make sure we can still provide the right places for the children of Bristol. We are currently working hard to make sure the city has the right number of places in the right areas for this increase in the future.”

Some families (4%) did not receive one of their preferred schools. The majority of these families applied for schools which allocate places by random allocation, are outside Bristol, or are faith schools.

Parents will receive emails with offers throughout the morning on 1 March and are advised to check their spam filter if they have not received an email by 12pm.

Anyone not receiving an offer for their preferred school will be given information about how to stay on the waiting list and the appeals process.

For more information about the offers process visit: https://www.bristol.gov.uk/schools-learning-early-years/secondary-admissions

Any parents who have concerns about their application should contact the admissions team on school.admissions@bristol.gov.uk.