More than 200 applications for primary schools in Cardiff were turned down last year due to capacity issues. 22 of the city's state primary schools were oversubscribed for the 2022/23 academic year, with one school receiving nearly double the amount of applications it could accept and four schools unable to accept any children from outside their catchment area.
When schools are oversubscribed, Cardiff Council applies a number of criteria to decide how places are allocated. These include prioritising children who are looked after by the council - on other words a child which has been under its care for 24 hours or more - as well as children living in the catchment area of the school, who have a sibling at the school or where there are compelling medical grounds for admission to a particular school.
The deadline for primary school applications in Cardiff for the 2023/24 year is Monday, January 9 with many schools likely to be oversubscribed again. However, the number of applications refused by 22 state primary schools for the 2022/23 year - 233 - was less than that of the previous year, when more than 302 applications were turned down in 2020/21.
