School admissions in Belper

How heavily each school was applied to for September 2026 entry, from the applications and offers every admissions authority reports to the DfE. 2 of these schools also have a published admissions cutoff distance. Sorted by first preferences per place. We don't invent rankings: the order is arithmetic on a published figure, not a view about which school is better.

Belper in figures

For Reception places in September 2026, families named the 12 schools in Belper first 268 times for 259 places: 1.03 first choices per place, against 1.00 across the Derbyshire authority's 290 schools. One of the 12 had more first choices than places.

Totals for the schools listed on this page. Applications and offers on national offer day, DfE; last-offer distances as the council published them.

Reception places, September 2026

12 schools. 1 received more first preferences than they had places.

School	First preferences per place	Places
Holbrook Church of England Primary SchoolBelper	2.15	20
Ambergate Primary SchoolBelper	1.00	16
Fritchley CofE (Aided) Primary & Nursery SchoolBelper	1.00	13
Pottery Primary SchoolBelper	1.00	20
St Elizabeth's Catholic Voluntary AcademyBelper	1.00	21
Turnditch Church of England Primary SchoolBelper	1.00	7
William Gilbert Endowed Church of England Primary SchoolBelper	0.96	25
St John's CofE Primary School and NurseryBelper	0.95	58
Long Row Primary SchoolBelper	0.93	29
Duffield the Meadows Primary SchoolBelper	0.92	25
Milford Primary SchoolBelper	0.77	13
Herbert Strutt Primary SchoolBelper	0.75	12

First preferences per place is the number of families naming the school first, divided by its published admission number. Above 1.00 means more first choices than places. It is not a ranking and not a measure of quality: a popular school can be easy to get into and a quiet one hard, because places are allocated by each school's own criteria, siblings and faith and banding first, with distance often the last tie-breaker. Applications and offers on national offer day, DfE.