Where in the North West children have the best odds of landing an offer from your top-pick secondary school

With important qualifications like GCSEs at stake, it’s vital that young people attend a secondary school that is a good match for them.

But as this year’s Year 6 leavers enter their final weeks of their primary school education, not all of their families will be sending them off to the secondaries they had hoped when the new school year arrives.

Earlier this month, the Government released its latest figures on state school applications and offers for the upcoming 2025/26 school year. They showed that nationwide, 83.5% of children got an offer from their family’s first choice of secondary school for the coming year.

This means that 16.5% were either offered a place at a different school, whether it be one of their parents’ other preferred options or not. With about 597,670 families applying for a place at a state-funded secondary school this year, that means nearly 100 thousand children missed out on that top pick.

If your child did miss out, it’s most likely not your fault. The Government says that there can be all sorts of reasons, from local school quality, to travel patterns, to the demand for school places in your area. For the most part, these come down to where you live.

We’ve taken a look at secondary school offers across each of the North West’s local authority areas, to give families some idea of their city or county’s acceptance rates. Each council area has been ranked based on the percentage of primary school leavers offered a spot in their family’s first choice of secondary school - with the proportion of children offered a place in at least one of their chosen options tacked on too.

Here they are, from highest to lowest: