FIGURES have revealed the most in-demand primary schools in the Halstead area for children starting this September.

The data, from Essex County Council, also shows which schools had the least amount of applicants for the upcoming academic year.

The volume of applications can vary depending on a number of factors.

The most popular five schools in and around Halstead were Holy Trinity C of E Primary, Gosfield Primary, St Andrew's C of E Primary, Earls Colne Primary and Nursery, and Colne Engaine C of E Primary.

Earls Colne Primary topped the list, with 68 children putting it as their first choice out of the 127 total applications.

Holy Trinity was a close second, with 99 total applicants.

In third was St Andrew’s, in which 45 chose it as their first choice, 34 as their second, and 24 as their third.

The school offered out 91 places in total.

There were 20 places given out for Gosfield Primary, of which 88 per cent had selected it as their first choice.

Colne Engaine was fifth and followed a similar trend.

There were 14 that chose it as their first choice, and 13 of these were admitted, with 16 places given out in total.

Across Essex out of a total of 16,067 applications which were received on time, 14,382 pupils who are due to start in reception year in September 2022 have been offered their parent or carer's first preference of primary school.

This equates to 89.51 per cent of the total eligible cohort and is equivalent to the 89.75 per cent who obtained their first preference last year.

Another 6.45 per cent of children were offered their parent's second preference of school.

Tony Ball, Essex County Council’s cabinet member for education excellence, lifelong learning and employability, said: “We continue to invest in creating additional primary school capacity so that as many parents and carers as possible receive their first preference of school for their child.

“I am pleased that this year we have again been able to offer thousands of first preference places. I would like to wish every child starting primary school this year the very best of luck for an exciting school year ahead.