The most popular Colchester primary schools ranked from most to least in-demand

The data, from Essex County Council, also shows which schools had the least amount of applicants for the upcoming academic year.

The volume of applications can vary depending on a number of factors.

• The most popular four schools out of the 59 listed for the area were Hamilton Primary School, St John’s Green Primary School, Home Farm Primary School and Highwoods Community Primary.

Hamilton Primary School was at the top of the list.

A total of 303 children applied for the school with 126 putting it as their first choice.

It was also the most oversubscribed school as it could only offer places to 60 children.

St John’s Green Primary School received 227 applications, with 73 children putting it as their top preference.

A total of 213 applied to Home Farm Primary School, with 64 selecting it as their first choice.

But the school could only offer 60 places.

The school places data showed Highwoods Community Primary School was also oversubscribed.

The data shows 179 children applied in total to the school.

Paul Disley, headteacher of Highwoods Community Primary School, said: “We are incredibly proud of our school and delighted that so many families have chosen to send their children to Highwoods."

Here is a table of the top ten most in-demand schools for September in Colchester:

This chart shows the least in-demand Colchester schools for the next academic year:

Here is the list of all the Colchester primary schools children applied for as their first preference ranked most popular to least:

Out of a total of 15,779 applications that were received on time across Essex, 14,161 pupils who are due to start in in September have been offered their parent or carer’s first preference of primary school.