School admissions in Halstead

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

11 schools. 3 received more first preferences than they had places.

School	First preferences per place	Places
Holy Trinity Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, HalsteadHalstead	1.55	29
St Peter's Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School, Sible HedinghamHalstead	1.30	30
St Andrew's Church of England Primary School, Great YeldhamHalstead	1.23	22
Ridgewell Church of England Primary SchoolHalstead	0.92	13
St Andrew's Church of England Primary School, HalsteadHalstead	0.87	30
St John the Baptist Church of England Voluntary Aided Primary School PebmarshHalstead	0.87	15
de Vere Primary SchoolHalstead	0.87	30
Richard de Clare Community AcademyHalstead	0.84	50
Gosfield Community Primary SchoolHalstead	0.78	18
St Giles' Church of England Primary SchoolHalstead	0.64	11
St Margaret's Church of England Voluntary Controlled Primary School ToppesfieldHalstead	0.60	10

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.