School admissions in Smethwick
How heavily each school was applied to for September 2026 entry, from the applications and offers every admissions authority reports to the DfE. 7 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.
Smethwick in figures
For Reception places in September 2026, families named the 15 schools in Smethwick first 808 times for 808 places: 1.00 first choices per place, against 1.00 across the Sandwell authority's 86 schools. 5 of the 15 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
15 schools. 5 received more first preferences than they had places.
| School | First preferences per place | Places |
|---|---|---|
| Crocketts Community Primary School | 1.40 | 60 |
| Devonshire Infant Academy | 1.20 | 89 |
| Shireland Technology Primary | 1.20 | 60 |
| St Gregory's Catholic Primary School | 1.10 | 30 |
| St Matthew's CofE Primary School | 1.02 | 60 |
| Bearwood Primary School | 0.98 | 48 |
| Abbey Infant School | 0.94 | 69 |
| Cape Primary School | 0.94 | 31 |
| Annie Lennard Primary School | 0.93 | 29 |
| Galton Valley Primary School | 0.90 | 59 |
| Victoria Park Primary | 0.90 | 59 |
| Shireland Hall Primary Academy | 0.89 | 82 |
| St Philip's Catholic Primary School | 0.87 | 15 |
| Uplands Manor Primary School and Nursery | 0.84 | 77 |
| George Betts Primary Academy | 0.65 | 40 |
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.