Main Points
This document contains results of the latest annual survey of placing requests (requests by parents to local authorities that a child be placed in a specified school). The latest survey covers August 2004 to July 2005 inclusive.
The main findings for 2004/05 are:
- The total number of placing requests received in 2004/05 was 30,317, about the same as the revised ( 1) 2003/04 figure of 30,309. The number of placing requests has changed little over the last decade (Table 1).
- Eighty five per cent of all requests were granted compared to 86 per cent in 2003/04. There has been little change in this rate in recent years.
- Where requests were refused, "Accommodation constraints" was the reason reported in 39 per cent of cases in primary schools and 49 per cent of cases in secondary schools (Table 8).
- Sixty two per cent of placing requests (18,670) were primary school requests, of which 91 per cent were granted. Placing requests received for stage P1 (excluding early entry) represented 23 per cent of the P1 pupil roll (Tables 2 and 7).
- Thirty eight per cent of placing requests (11,507) were for secondary, of which 76 per cent were granted. Placing requests for stage S1 represented 14 per cent of the S1 pupil roll (Tables 2 and 7).
- Special schools accounted for 0.5 per cent of requests (140), of which 75 per cent were granted (Table 2). Of these, 38 placing requests were for places in grant aided orindependent special schools (Table 5). Sixty one per cent of these were granted.
- There were 197 requests for early entry into primary school, 10 of which were for schools other than the one the pupil would normally have entered. These early entry requests are not legally placing requests and are therefore generally not included in this year's publication. They are shown in Table 2 for information.