Children across south Leeds were informed of their secondary school place earlier this month, with a record 8230 of pupils offered their first preference school (7825 last year). Leeds City Council made a total of 9877 place offers for September 2023; a decrease of 15 from the offers made last year.
However, some parents/carers and pupils did not get their first choice, with a total of 30 schools in the city refusing place preferences due to more first choice applications being made than places available.
Cockburn School in Beeston had the highest number of place refusals for September 2023 of all of the schools in south Leeds and was the seventh highest in the city behind six schools all in north Leeds.
Cockburn School had 240 places available and 122 total preferences were refused.
However, despite the success of Cockburn School, many will not be as disappointed if therefore they will be joining one of the other Cockburn MAT secondary schools in south Leeds, both of which are also oversubscribed again this year. Cockburn John Charles Academy celebrated excellent Year 11 exam results last summer and also an Ofsted inspection in 2022 that graded them as ‘Good’ overall and ‘Outstanding’ in two areas. Cockburn Laurence Calvert Academy will move into their brand-new building in September 2023 as they welcome their third Year 7 cohort since they opened in September 2021.
Since Ofsted judged Cockburn School to be ‘Outstanding’ in all areas in February 2022, the school has continued to focus on its journey of ‘Transformation to Excellence’. Students and staff at the school are driven by the desire and belief that they can continually improve – even after the Ofsted judgement, this remains a relentless pursuit.
Cockburn School continues to strive for excellence within the Performing Arts. As part of this excellence agenda, they provide an admissions programme for students who have the talent and commitment to become part of the school community as a specialist in either Dance, Drama or Music. The admissions process is detailed clearly in the school’s policy and 10% of each year group are considered as their elite students in the arts and are placed in a form group together.
Since National Offer Day on the 1st March, nearly all of the 240 places at Cockburn School have now been accepted. Next steps for these families will be a build up towards the transition evening on 5th July and the process of preparing uniform and equipment ready for September 2023!
