Several Barnet children have been accepted at their first choice school

80% received first preference – a slight increase on last year’s reports Adam Care, Data Reporter

More children in Barnet have entered their first choice school this year, new figures show.

The figures come amid an intense debate about the future of school places, following plans by the Labor Party to scrap the VAT exemption on private schools.

In Barnet, 8,053 applications were submitted for primary and secondary school places for the coming academic year.

Of these, 80% received first preference – a slight increase on last year, when 78% were successful.

In England, 83% of secondary pupils and 93% of primary pupils got into the school they wanted, a slight improvement on last year.

If elected, Labor plans to scrap the charitable status of private schools, which the Tories have warned will force them to raise fees, sparking fears that state schools will be overwhelmed by former private school pupils.

Analysis by the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests this is unlikely to happen because of shrinking class sizes and declining birth rates.

The IFS estimates that adding VAT to private school fees could result in a 3 to 7% reduction in private school attendance – around 17,000 to 40,000 children.

However, the number of pupils in state schools in England is set to fall by a projected drop of more than 625,000 between 2023 and 2030 – just short of the total number of pupils in private schools.

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “It’s great to see more parents getting preferences first and it’s likely to be a national trend we’ll see for years to come. also, as student numbers continue to decline due to declining births.

“However, it will not be spread evenly and there will continue to be pressure on places in some schools due to local factors.”

He said it was “difficult to know” how the proposed VAT charge would affect school places and a future Labor government would need to carry out “careful modelling” before doing so.

He added: “There is a wider implication for the state sector as falling rolls equates to less money as funding is allocated on a per pupil basis.

“This means many schools will have to make cuts and that is why we are calling on politicians to commit to increasing funding rates rather than seeing this as a saving to the Treasury.”

The figures showed that 65,447 pupils in England were offered a place in a local authority other than where they lived – this included 1,152 pupils from Barnet.

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