School admissions in Dereham

How heavily each school was applied to for September 2026 entry, from the applications and offers every admissions authority reports to the DfE. 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.

Reception places, September 2026

14 schools. 0 received more first preferences than they had places.

School	First preferences per place	Places
Dereham Church of England Infant and Nursery AcademyDereham	1.00	50
Foulsham Primary School AcademyDereham	1.00	10
Grove House Infant and Nursery SchoolDereham	1.00	24
Hockering Church of England Primary AcademyDereham	1.00	3
King's Park Infant School, DerehamDereham	1.00	15
North Elmham Church of England Primary Academy & NurseryDereham	1.00	4
St Mary's Community Primary School, BeetleyDereham	1.00	18
Swanton Morley VC Primary SchoolDereham	1.00	25
Toftwood Infant SchoolDereham	1.00	54
Yaxham Church of England Primary AcademyDereham	1.00	5
Scarning Voluntary Controlled Primary SchoolDereham	0.96	55
Bawdeswell Community Primary SchoolDereham	0.93	14
Brisley Church of England Primary AcademyDereham	0.92	12
Mattishall Primary SchoolDereham	0.88	25

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.