More than nine in 10 Wigan pupils secure first-choice secondary school

More than nine in 10 secondary school applicants in Wigan received an offer from the school their family placed first, new analysis has revealed.

Education experts at Chapel & Tuck analysed the latest first-preference offer rates across 152 local authorities in England to identify where families are most and least likely to secure their preferred secondary school.

The results show that 91.07 per cent of applicants in Wigan received their first choice, leaving 8.93 per cent without the school they had ranked at the top of their application.

This means that for every 100 children applying for a secondary school place in the borough, approximately nine did not receive their preferred option.

Wigan recorded the highest first-choice offer rate of all ten Greater Manchester local authorities included in the analysis.

Bury followed most closely, with 90.69 per cent of applicants receiving their preferred school and 9.31 per cent missing out.

Bolton recorded a first-choice offer rate of 87.07 per cent, followed by Rochdale at 86.82 per cent and Tameside at 86.69 per cent.

Rates were lower in Salford, where 85.94 per cent secured their first choice, and Trafford, where the figure stood at 80.97 per cent.

Stockport recorded a rate of 79.93 per cent, while Manchester stood at 77.13 per cent. Oldham had the lowest first-choice offer rate in Greater Manchester at 75.20 per cent, leaving almost one in four applicants, 24.80 per cent, without their preferred school.

The gap between Wigan and Oldham stood at 15.87 percentage points.

Based on their respective missed-first-choice rates, applicants in Oldham were almost three times as likely to miss out on their preferred school as those in Wigan.

Wigan also performed more strongly than several other major towns and cities included in the national analysis.

The first-choice offer rate was 88.68 per cent in Sheffield, 83.41 per cent in Portsmouth, 75.74 per cent in Birmingham and 68.12 per cent in Liverpool.

However, a number of areas elsewhere in England recorded even higher rates.

Dorset had the highest first-choice offer rate nationally at 97.91 per cent, meaning only 2.09 per cent of applicants did not receive their preferred school.

Cornwall followed at 97.37 per cent, while East Riding of Yorkshire recorded a rate of 96.80 per cent.

At the opposite end of the analysis, Greenwich had the lowest first-choice offer rate in England at just 60.18 per cent, meaning 39.82 per cent of applicants did not receive the school they placed first.

Wandsworth followed at 60.44 per cent, while Lambeth stood at 61.42 per cent, Richmond-upon-Thames at 62.25 per cent and Lewisham at 63.47.

London boroughs dominated the most competitive end of the table, accounting for 15 of the 16 areas with the lowest first-choice offer rates.

Outside the capital, Liverpool recorded the lowest rate at 68.12 per cent, leaving almost one in three applicants without their preferred school.