The 17 toughest Leeds state secondary schools to get into this year - as application deadline nears

Leeds is full of excellent state secondary schools, with strong track records of helping pupils succeed in their GCSEs - and beyond.

But parents hoping their soon-to-be primary school leaver will get a place at their preferred school next year may face more competition than expected, with many of these popular local schools oversubscribed. And even though the new 2025/26 school year has only just begun, applications for a state-funded secondary school place for next year are open now.

Families only have a few weeks left until the deadline too, with applications needing to be submitted by October 31 if their child is to have the best chance of landing an offer from their first choice. The outcome will be revealed on national offers day - which will fall on March 2 next year.

Amid the current buzz of attending open days and browsing the latest league tables, some parents are likely curious about their child’s chances of getting into the school they want. Just like with primary schools, the odds are generally pretty good. But with just 83.5% of children nationwide getting an offer from their first choice of secondary for the current 2025/26 school year, some will inevitably miss out.

With this in mind, we’ve taken a look at the Department of Education’s latest data on schools across the Leeds City Council area, comparing how many parents put each one down as their top pick, with how many first-choice offers each one actually sent out.

Here were the city’s hardest secondaries to land an offer from this year: