New data has revealed the ‘most oversubscribed’ primary schools in Bury as next year’s school applications close.

Government figures have been released showing the number of applications submitted for school places in the borough in September 2023 and how many pupils the schools took in.

According to the data, the most oversubscribed school in the borough, where the number of parents who chose it as a first preference exceeded the sum of total places offered, was St Marie’s Roman Catholic Primary.

In the 2023/24 academic year, 48 applications were made to St Marie’s as a first preference but only 29 places were offered in total, meaning around 40 per cent of these applications were unsuccessful and 60 per cent were successful.

The second most popular primary schools in the borough were St Mary’s Church of England Aided Primary School in Prestwich and Sunnybank Primary School which accepted around 73 per cent of the total first choice applications they received.

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A number of other schools across the borough also received more first choice applications that they had places, including Higher Lane Primary School which received 80 first choice application, but offered only 66 places.

The figures, which were published by the Department for Education (DFE) suggest that 92.5 per cent of primary school applications across the UK received an offer for their first preference school.

Across the country, 568,600 applications were received for a place at primary school in 2023 and only 8,000 applicants did not receive an offer of one of their preferred schools.

While many schools in Bury received more applications than they could offer places, other schools in the borough received fewer applications than they had spaces, including Chapelfield Primary School in Radcliffe.

The school, which has a ‘Good’ Ofsted rating, received 26 first choice applications and offered 35 total places.

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Sedgley Park Community Primary School received 22 first choice applications despite offering 28 places and Whitefield Community Primary School received 19 first choice application and offered 24 total places.

The DfE said the proportion of primary applicants receiving an offer of their first-choice school has increased slightly to 92.5 per cent - up from 92.2 per cent in 2022.

The proportion of applicants who received an offer of any of their preferred primary schools was very slightly up compared to 2022 at 98.6 per cent. Only 8,000 applicants did not receive an offer of one of their preferred schools (down from 9,000 last year).

A spokesperson from Bury Council said: “In relation to primary schools, a small number of schools are oversubscribed, largely because they remain popular with parents. But there remain places available across all areas of the borough and over 91% of primary schools are judged good or better by Ofsted, so there are many options for parents."