Some of Birmingham’s most popular schools only have space for just over a third of all first choice applicants
The Olive School in Small Heath is one of the most popular primary schools in Birmingham(Image: Google Street View)
As families across Birmingham eagerly await National School Offers Day, we’re taking a look at the city’s ‘most oversubscribed’ primaries.
Birmingham City Council will be emailing parents on Wednesday April 16 to tell them where or not they have been successful in getting their chosen primary school place for September.
It can be a tense time as disappointment may be inevitable, especially as a several schools only have space for around half the number of children who apply there – or less in some cases.
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Our data team has been researching which primary schools in Birmingham are the hardest to get into. The 20 schools listed below were the most oversubscribed in 2024.
Birmingham headmaster Adam Ames shared his tips for choosing the right school for your child on the Brummie Mummies Podcast here:
The toughest school to get into was The Olive School in Tyseley where only 36% of first choice applicants were offered a sought-after place.
It was a similar story at The Olive School in Small Heath too where just 44% were successful.
Only 30 children were offered a place at St Catherine of Siena Catholic Primary School in central Birmingham despite 56 requesting the school as their first choice (54%).
And just 60 out of 107 children (56%) were offered a place at Lea Forest Primary Academy in Kitts Green.
At Moseley Church of England Primary School, 30 out of 52 applicants ( 58%) secured a place in the September 2024 intake class.
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The 20 hardest schools to get into in Birmingham
Here are the primary schools that were the toughest to get a place in 2024:
School name – Times put as a first choice – Places offered to first choice – % of first choice offered a place
- The Olive School, Birmingham – 234 – 84 – 36%
- The Olive School, Small Heath – 130 – 57 – 44%
- St Catherine of Siena Catholic Primary School – 56 – 30 – 54%
- Lea Forest Primary Academy – 107 – 60 – 56%
- Moseley Church of England Primary School – 52 – 30 – 58%
- Al-Furqan Primary School – 123 – 73 – 59%
- St Thomas CofE Academy – 47 – 28 – 60%
- The Shirestone Academy – 46 – 30 – 65%
- Nishkam Primary School Birmingham – 89 – 59 – 66%
- Acocks Green Primary School – 79 – 53 – 67%
- St Peter’s Catholic Primary School – 44 – 30 – 68%
- Grendon Primary School – 43 – 30 – 70%
- Cofton Primary School – 80 – 57 – 71%
- Harborne Primary School – 165 – 119 – 72%
- Barr View Primary & Nursery Academy – 77 – 58 – 75%
- West Heath Primary School – 69 – 52 – 75%
- Chilcote Primary School – 77 – 59 – 77%
- Four Oaks Primary School – 77 – 59 – 77%
- Christ The King Catholic Primary School – 60 – 46 – 77%
- Colebourne Primary School – 78 – 60 – 77%
- Topcliffe Primary School – 39 – 30 – 77%
- St Nicholas Catholic Primary School – 39 – 30 – 77%
A spokesman for the Department for Education said: “The proportion of primary school applicants who received an offer of their first preference school rose by 0.7 percentage points to 93.2%.
“This was based on a 2.3% drop in the number of applicants for a place at primary school, to around 555,600. Applications have been falling since 2020, although the reduction in on-time applications in 2021 may have been pandemic related. This is likely to be a result of the continued drop in births seen from 2016 onwards.”