School admissions in Esher
How heavily each school was applied to for September 2026 entry, from the applications and offers every admissions authority reports to the DfE. 6 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.
Esher in figures
For Reception places in September 2026, families named the 4 schools in Esher first 214 times for 222 places: 0.96 first choices per place, against 0.99 across the Surrey authority's 247 schools. One of the 4 had more first choices than places. For 2019 entry, one school here gave its last places on distance: Cranmere Primary School, to 1.42 miles.
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
4 schools. 1 received more first preferences than they had places.
| School | First preferences per place | Places | Cutoff distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Claygate Primary School | 1.03 | 60 | not published |
| Esher Church School | 0.96 | 56 | not published |
| Hinchley Wood Primary School | 0.93 | 81 | not published |
| Cranmere Primary School | 0.92 | 25 | 2.279 km (≈1.42 mi) |
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.