Thousands miss out on their first choice of school

Many families will receive a satisfactory offer lower down their list of preferences, but for some their children will be offered a school which is underperforming or geographically inconvenient, according to The Good Schools Guide.

It comes on the day children across the country learn which secondary school they will attend from this autumn, on what is known as National Offer Day.

Bernadette John, a director at The Good Schools Guide, said: “We speak to parents every year who are disappointed and angry with the school offers their children have received.”

There have been mounting concerns about a squeeze on school places, caused in part by a recent rise in the birthrate, that is now seeing its way through into secondary schools.

Council chiefs said they are doing all they can to create enough school places, but warned they are doing so “with one hand behind their backs” as they need more powers to open new schools and force academies to expand.

However, a more positive picture is being painted in Yorkshire, with councils in Leeds, Sheffield and York reporting a rise in the number of children attending their first preference school.

In Leeds more than 85 per cent of children will be attending their first choice school in September, an increase from 82 per cent last year.

Coun Lisa Mulherin, executive member for children and families at Leeds City Council, said: “I am pleased that we have been able to offer the majority of young people their first preference school.”

More than 87 per cent of Sheffield children have been given their first preference, while in York 92 per cent gave been allocated their first choice – an increase of one per cent.

Nationally, more than half of the country has seen a fall in the proportions of 11-year-olds winning a place at their first choice.

The situation has also become tougher over the past five years, with two-thirds of local authorities witnessing a drop in the percentages of pupils gaining any of their preferred schools.

Richard Watts, chairman of the Local Government Association’s children and young people board, said: “Creating an extra 300,000 primary places over recent years is a demonstrable record that councils are doing everything they can to rise to the challenge of ensuring no child goes without a place.

“However, as children move on to secondary schools, the majority of which are now academies, councils are working with one hand behind their backs to help as many as possible receive a place at their first-choice school.

“If they are to meet the demand for secondary school places, then existing academy schools should be made to expand where required, or councils should be given back the powers to open new maintained schools.”

A Department for Education spokesman added: “The proportion of parents getting a place at their first choice of school remains stable, and last year almost all parents got an offer at one of their top three preferred schools.”

Comment: Page 12.