Postcode lottery for Yorkshire pupils applying for secondary school places

National Offer Day saw half a million families nationally discover which school their child has been allocated to from this September.

Thousands of pupils across Yorkshire missed out on their first choice. In almost every education authority area in the region there was a drop in the level of successful applications.

Figures show children in most areas of West Yorkshire were less likely to get into their first choice school than in other parts of the county.

In Bradford one-in-four children (25 per cent) have not been allocated their first choice, while in Calderdale, Kirklees and Leeds the figure was 17 per cent. Leeds saw one of the sharpest drops in numbers getting into their first choice down five per cent to 83 from 88 the previous year. However the authority said it had placed 421 more pupils this year because of an increased demand.

In Leeds around 1,300 - were not allocated a place in their first choice school. The numbers who have not got into any of their preferences across the city has risen from 1.9 per cent in 2014/15 to 4.5 per cent this year. The city’s council has allocated 7,962 places this year with 6,603 getting their first choice.

Coun Judith Blake, Leeds City Council’s executive member for children’s services said the figures showed the need for councils to be able to open up their own schools in response to demand.

She said the city would face increased in demand in future years. At present education authorities can only apply to the Government to run competitions to open up academies but cannot open new schools themselves.

The Labour councillor said: “I am not trying to make a political point here. What I am saying is in line with local government councillors of all parties. Councils need to be able to open up schools ourselves where we see the demand.”

She said this point had also been made by David Simmonds, the chairman of the Local Government Association’s (LGA) Children and Young People’s board, who was a Conservative councillor.

Coun Simmonds said: “Under LGA plans, every child would get a place at a good local school, but we need government to address this urgently.

“Our fear is that we will reach a tipping point when councils or schools cannot afford the massive cost of creating places or find the space necessary for new classes.

“The Government needs to commit to fund the creation of school places and hand councils the powers to open new schools, for both primary and secondary-age pupils, before time runs out. Councils face a challenge creating places on time and in the right places when their hands are tied by red tape and they are short of money to do so.”

In Sheffield the numbers getting into their first choice fell from 89.9 per cent (5,194) last year to 86.4 (5,085) per cent.

Across the city 340 pupils - 5.68 per cent - were allocated schools which they had not chosen. This was up from 190 - 3.3per cent - the year before.

A spokeswoman for Sheffield City Council said: “This would be their catchment school if they had not applied for it and there were still places available or the nearest school with places available.”

Paul Brennan, the deputy director of children’s services at Leeds City Council, said the authority was working with schools and families to find alternative places for children who did not get any of their preferences or who refuse the place they have been given.

In Kirklees 83.1 per cent of pupils were allocated their first choice, which was down slightly on last year’s figure of 84.7 per cent. Almost 95 per cent of children were allocated a place at one of their choices but 271 children – 5.1 per cent - were not.

In Doncaster 99 per cent of pupils were offered a place at one of their preferred schools with 95 per cent receiving a place at their first choice school.

In the East Riding 97.2 per cent got their first choice. Of the 3,226 applications the council received 3,135 got places at their first choice school and 3,215 were allocated a place at one of their first three choices.

In York 92.1 per cent of pupils, (1,636) got into their first choice.

In North Yorkshire the figure was 89.1 per cent. This was down on 92 per cent the year before but the council faced the largest cohort transferring to secondary school since 2008.

In Barnsley 90.5 per cent got into their first choice while in Rotherham it was 94 per cent.

Wakefield had the largest number of successful applicants in West Yorkshire at 95 per cent.

Around half a million families around the country have found out which school they have been allocated to, on what is commonly known as National Offer Day.

Among them are the Prime Minister and his family, whose daughter Nancy will attend secondary school from this September.