Thousands of children missed out on a place at their preferred school in the West Midlands this year, official Department for Education figures show.
Across England, 8% of primary school applicants and 17% of secondary school applicants did not get a place at their first choice school, affecting nearly 150,000 children in total.
In the West Midlands, 4,765 of applicants did not get into their first choice primary school. This meant 7.5% of primary aged children did not get a place at their first choice school - higher than the national average.
Inner London was found to have the hardest schools to get into in the country. One in every eight children (13%) did not get into their first choice primary school. This rose to one in three (33%) for secondary school places.
Applications opened on 1 October 2022 for primary school applications in Birmingham for entry in September 2023 . The closing date is 15 January 2023 at 11:59pm.
How competitive is it to get into your local primary school? Here we report on which Birmingham primary schools are the most oversubscribed.
Here are the top 10 hardest Birmingham primary schools to get into.
1. The Olive School, Tyseley
The school had 205 first preference applications for its 90 places, meaning just 43.4% of those who put it down first got in
2. St Thomas CE Academy, Birmingham city centre
The school had 59 first preference applications for its 30 places, meaning just 47.5% of those who put it as first choice got in
3. The Olive School, Small Heath
Just 47.8% of applicants who had the school down as first choice got a place in the school
4. St Catherine of Siena Catholic Primary School, Birmingham city centre
Only 52.9% of applicants who had the school down as first choice got in