Going through the Primary School Application Process, from a Data and Research Perspective

In the UK, it’s that time of year where parents with three-year-olds and four-year-olds are now attending school tours to see prospective schools for their little ones while applying to these schools. Some of the schools near me are oversubscribed (at least two schools near me receive around 800-900 applications for 90 spots) but it is important to note that perhaps this is uniquely an experience in the London borough of Brent since the birth ratio has dropped and some schools across the country are opting to reduce the number of classes or forms they have in reception.

I’m also in that boat for my three year old and this week, we’ve finally attended all of our tours. We’ve looked at eight schools in total and I’ve done nine tours while my partner accompanied me to six of those tours (I liked one school that I saw on my own so much, I got us to do another tour together). My partner and I are both the type of people who need a lot of information in order to make a decision, but we were also advised to put in our application as early as we could. So we applied on September 11 and then set out to book a number of tours and given what we do here at Strides Insights (and how my partner and I both prefer to make decisions), here is how we approached the situation:

1. Quick conversation with someone who knows a little bit more: Last year, we had emailed his nursery to confirm when he would be graduating as I was sure he would be graduating in 2026 and my husband thought it was 2027. The school confirmed it was 2026, and sent us a shortlist of schools alumni moved on to so we used that as a starting point.

2. Data approach: Once we were ready to revisit that shortlist this year, I made a spreadsheet of schools near us starting with that list from the nursery. I also Googled other schools near us and added them to the list. I then ranked this list based on two key performance indicators:

A. Ofsted ratings (https://reports.ofsted.gov.uk/): look here for primary schools in your area. Ofsted is the Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills and is a non-ministerial department (which means it’s typically headed by a senior civil servant, not a minister). They inspect services providing education and skills for learners of all ages; and they inspect and regulate services that care for children and young people.

Ofsted ratings look at key areas like:

• Quality of education

• Personal development, behaviour, and attitudes

• Safeguarding

• Leadership and management

• Inclusion

Previously, services were given a grade on a four-point scale: Outstanding, Good, Requires Improvement, and Inadequate. In late 2024, Ofsted announced that its old single-word judgements for schools would be replaced with a new "report card" system in November 2025, following a period of public consultation so this change is not reflected in many assessments that you will see right now on the site.

If you’re into data approaches generally and are curious about the role of data in schools and further inspection reports, you can read Ofsted’s blog post from November 7 2025 at the link here: https://educationinspection.blog.gov.uk/2025/11/07/the-role-of-data-on-school-and-further-education-inspections/. As they mention, data is just a starting point and does not form the entire assessment, but if you’re into data analytics like Shumaila is, you’ll like this article.

B. School performance data: On Gov.UK (https://www.compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk/), you will find schools in your area listed with the following metrics and some notes of what these metrics mean when you hover over them:

• % of pupils meeting expected standard

• % of pupils achieving at a higher standard

• Average score in reading

• Average score in maths

We focused on the “% of pupils meeting expected standard” as this seemed the most understandable metric of the four presented in the table above. However, if you prefer, you can pick “% of pupils achieving at a higher standard” or really any other metric instead. Metrics are only valuable to use if they mean something to you as the user.

See how it looks below now that we've selected Brent as our local area:

C. Distance from our house in terms of walking time (minutes), as per Google Maps. This is simply to demonstrate to us which schools will be easiest to get to (since we will have to do this five days a week!), though we did include a couple of schools that would be within a ten minute drive from home (including my partner’s alma mater).

3. Application - making some predictions about the direction we will most likely take: We were advised to make the application early by my partner’s coworker so while we were both working from home, I took the opportunity to go over the application and debate our school rankings while I filled out the application on our behalf.

If you still need to do this, head over to this page to find your local council’s school application portal: Apply for a primary school place on Gov.UK (https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-primary-school-place). Something to note here: while you will know the answer to most questions (such as your contact information), you should have your council tax reference number before you start this process. You can find this on your council tax bill, typically in the top right corner. That’s the one thing I needed to hunt for that day in order to complete the application.

4. Primary research approach - school tours: Here is where it requires some more involved work. I looked on each school’s website to find out about their open days. Some were easy to book online directly from their websites while I needed to email (first preference - you want things in writing) or call a few schools asking about their open days. For me personally, one red flag was if a school did not conduct open days or evenings to allow prospective students’ parents to see the school for themselves before applying and accepting a placement; some schools stated they did not provide open days or evenings and parents would come see the school afterwards or only made exceptions for prospective students with Special Educational Needs (SEN).

I initially booked Open Day tours with eight schools (my partner came to five with me), and later added an extra Open Evening with a school I liked that my partner was initially unable to accompany me. While some parents don’t mind doing this on their own as an individual, my partner and I are both hands on with parenting so this is a joint decision and I need his input accordingly. Some parents also like to take their children to the schools to see how their children react to the school - and vice versa! My favourite schools were the ones where whoever was leading the tour acknowledged and was friendly to children in the school or children on the tour, while it seemed odd to me when on our first two tours, children were not acknowledged by the deputy head or headteacher leading the tour.

I missed out on doing this on my first tour, but I realised I needed to take notes at all schools and if needed, pictures at schools where my partner wasn’t there to see for himself. Take pictures only where children aren’t present, and administrators usually do not mind this if you ask to take pictures in that circumstance. The notes do not have to be organised in any particular way, but it will help you pay attention to what is being said more clearly and you can refer back if you don’t remember all the exact details (such as start times and end times, how many snacks children get, etc.). In my case, I shared my notes with a few friends in the area because a couple of our friends started the process late so they found these notes helpful (even if they didn’t apply to the same schools).

One thing to note is you will feel it (a certain discomfort) when a school is not the right school for you - and this applies to research and policy options too. For example, while I didn’t mind one school that was bigger in size (four reception classes of 30 students each, so about 900 students in total), one friend said that she felt a primary school being so big wouldn’t be right for her son. Similarly, I recognised that one school I visited would not be academically enough for my son when the children at the school would also be dealing with other life challenges; and another school (that the other friend loved on her tour!) gave us so little information - despite being one of the best ranked schools - that I realised I had more questions than answers when looking at my notes. For me, unlike most policies or programmes I have worked on, this process is even more emotionally charged as this impacts my son’s wellbeing as well… but I also realise this is similar to how many of us feel about our work when we know there is a lot on the line. When looking at your options for taking action on a certain issue, remember that there is always more context to the situation than what is presented on paper in terms of the data. Good data analysts are able to look beyond the data, and a research and public policy professional will also help provide context based on what you need - and when deciding on your child’s preferred schools, you will know what they need and what’s right for them most, and that is your context.

5. Revisiting our application, now that we’ve learned more - similar to policy adoption:

We will now have to revisit our application, now that we’ve learned more. Then we will make our final decisions about where to apply.

It’s a scary process where we recognise we don’t fully control the outcome, but we also know we have to think about what is best for our child and what we can do to supplement or enrich our child’s education if the school placement we do get isn’t what we hope for. While we still have to update our application and rank our schools again, I’ll provide an update in April about what school we get into - and how we plan to deal with that shift from a policy/programme change management perspective. On behalf of Strides Insights (and from one parent to another), good luck to all the parents out there with their primary and secondary school applications!