School admissions in Nelson

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

16 schools. 8 received more first preferences than they had places.

School	First preferences per place	Places
Nelson St Philip's Church of England Primary SchoolNelson	1.42	19
Barrowford St Thomas Church of England Primary SchoolNelson	1.35	17
Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Primary School, a Voluntary AcademyNelson	1.33	15
Blacko Primary SchoolNelson	1.29	14
Marsden Community Primary SchoolNelson	1.25	59
Whitefield Infant School and NurseryNelson	1.14	83
Pendle Primary AcademyNelson	1.10	60
Bradley Primary SchoolNelson	1.07	58
Nelson St Paul's Church of England Primary SchoolNelson	0.93	57
Great Marsden St John's Primary School A Church of England AcademyNelson	0.86	21
Barrowford SchoolNelson	0.84	19
Holy Saviour Roman Catholic Primary School, NelsonNelson	0.83	23
Castercliff Primary SchoolNelson	0.81	37
Roughlee Church of England Primary SchoolNelson	0.80	5
St John Southworth RC Primary School, A Voluntary AcademyNelson	0.80	30
Walverden Primary SchoolNelson	0.75	51

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.