School admissions in Melksham
How heavily each school was applied to for September 2026 entry, from the applications and offers every admissions authority reports to the DfE. None of these schools has 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.
Melksham in figures
For Reception places in September 2026, families named the 9 schools in Melksham first 247 times for 247 places: 1.00 first choices per place, against 1.00 across the Wiltshire authority's 194 schools. One of the 9 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
9 schools. 1 received more first preferences than they had places.
| School | First preferences per place | Places |
|---|---|---|
| Shaw CE Primary School | 1.03 | 30 |
| Aloeric Primary School | 1.00 | 30 |
| Bowerhill Primary School | 1.00 | 55 |
| Churchfields, the Village School | 1.00 | 10 |
| River Mead School | 1.00 | 23 |
| Seend Church of England Primary School | 1.00 | 4 |
| St Mary's Broughton Gifford Voluntary Controlled Church of England Primary School | 1.00 | 7 |
| The Manor CofE VC Primary School | 1.00 | 13 |
| Forest and Sandridge Church of England Primary School | 0.99 | 75 |
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.