Home to some of North Yorkshire's highest-performing schools, the Harrogate district attracts strong demand from families each year.
As parents attend open evenings and browse the latest GCSE league tables, many will also be wondering how likely their child is to secure a place at their preferred school.
Parents and carers of children due to start Year 7 in September 2027 can now apply for a secondary school place, with applications open until October 31.
At the Harrogate Advertiser, we have taken a look at the Department for Education’s latest data on schools across the Harrogate district, comparing how many parents named each school as their first preference with the number of first-choice offers made.
There are some schools that had a 100 per cent success rate, so they are listed by size rather than selectiveness.
These are the 9 hardest secondary schools in the Harrogate district to get into, based on 2026/27 admissions data...
2. St Aidan's Church of England High School
For the 2026/27 academic year, 339 parents put this school down as their first choice, with 235 offered places – a success rate of 69 per cent | Archive
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