School admissions in Hastings
How heavily each school was applied to for September 2026 entry, from the applications and offers every admissions authority reports to the DfE. 4 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.
Hastings in figures
For Reception places in September 2026, families named the 9 schools in Hastings first 361 times for 372 places: 0.97 first choices per place, against 1.00 across the East Sussex authority's 141 schools. One of the 9 had more first choices than places. For 2021 entry, one school here gave its last places on distance: Westfield School, to 3.03 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
9 schools. 1 received more first preferences than they had places.
| School | First preferences per place | Places | Cutoff distance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guestling Bradshaw Church of England Primary School | 1.27 | 30 | not published |
| Mulberry Baird Primary | 1.00 | 34 | not published |
| Ore Village Primary Academy | 1.00 | 25 | not published |
| Ark Blacklands Primary Academy | 0.98 | 90 | not published |
| Ark Castledown Primary Academy | 0.98 | 42 | not published |
| Christ Church CofE Primary and Nursery Academy | 0.95 | 40 | not published |
| Dudley Infant Academy | 0.91 | 33 | not published |
| Sandown Primary School and Nursery | 0.88 | 60 | not published |
| Westfield School | 0.78 | 18 | 4878 m (≈3.03 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.