Allocation of places

The statutory 'Equal Preference System' is used to allocate school places in Stockport.

  • All preferences you have stated are initially looked at individually regardless of the order in which you have ranked the schools.
  • The order you have ranked your preferences becomes important when it is possible to allocate a place for your child at more than one of your preferred schools.
  • In this instance you will be offered a place at the available school you have ranked the highest
  • It is possible that applicant (A) who ranked a school as a lower preference, could be allocated a place ahead of other applicants who ranked the same school as a preference, if s/he (A) meets one of the higher oversubscription criteria

Whilst every effort will be made to place your child in one of the preferred schools, places cannot be guaranteed at any school, regardless of where you live or which primary school your child has attended.

Each school has a Published Admission Number (PAN) for first year intake. If there are more applications for a school than places available, places will be allocated to children up to the PAN using the admissions policy oversubscription categories (criteria).

The names of children within each category are ordered by straight line distance, from home to school starting with the shortest distance. If there are two or more applications with distances which are exactly the same competing for a final place, random allocation will be used to determine which applicant will be allocated the final place.

We suggest you consider including your catchment area school as one of your preferences, as you will be higher in the oversubscription criteria than you may be for other schools you have named.

Any applications received after the closing date will be placed in the last of the oversubscription categories for all schools/nurseries and therefore, will not be considered until all applications received by the closing date have been allocated.