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A new school year began this month and whilst National Offer Day may feel like a long time ago, it was a tense time for many families and unfortunately not all children received the school allocation they had wished for.
According to Lancashire County Council, 98 per cent of children were awarded their first-choice primary school for the 2026/2027 academic year but that meant 2 per cent were left disappointed.
The latest available DfE figures show which Lancashire secondary schools were the hardest to get into in September 2026 and we gathered the 19 toughest schools across the county in our previous story here.
Below however, we have turned our attention to just the schools in Preston, Chorley and South Ribble so take a look at the 18 hardest secondary schools to get into across that patch next.
We have ordered these schools in ascending order so that the hardest secondary schools feature last.
If your child’s school does not feature that is because it had an 100 per cent acceptance rate.
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13. Holy Cross Catholic High School (6)
216 pupils put this school as their first choice but only 176 first choice offers were handed out which is a success rate of 81.48% | Google Maps
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14. Balshaw's Church of England High School (5)
201 pupils put this school as their first choice but only 162 first choice offers were handed out which is a success rate of 80.6% | Google Maps
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15. Parklands High School (4)
239 pupils put this school as their first choice but only 191 first choice offers were handed out which is a success rate of 79.92% | Google Maps
16. Moor Park High School and Sixth Form (3)
141 pupils put this school as their first choice but only 112 first choice offers were handed out which is a success rate of 79.43%