A week ago secondary school admission results were released. Many happy and unhappy families across Southwark.

First preference – Southwark increased the proportion of families obtaining their first preference school. Up at 56% from 53% last year but with 85 less applicants. But the average for London was 66% of families. So Southwark is some distance behind.

Any of 6 stated preferences – Southwark parents and carers had 91% success obtaining one of their up to 6 stated preferences whereas the average for London was 95% with 88% offered one of their top 3 choices.

It’s clear that Southwark will remain one of the worst performing boroughs in the country for residents getting their first preference school choice.

How can we fix this?

We need more secondary schools that people want their children to attend. People are applying for what they believe to be the best performing school which see huge demand for the limited places and a lot of disappointed applicants.