Thousands of children miss out on top choice secondary schools: Hear informed debate

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Education authorities sent out letters, texts and emails to more than half-a-million families across the country yesterday informing them whether they had got into their chosen schools.

The Yorkshire Post can reveal that at least 4,938 pupils across the region did not get a place in their first choice secondary in the next academic year and 1,272 were not offered a place at any of their preferred schools. The figures are based on responses from councils in Bradford, Calderdale, Doncaster, Hull, Leeds, North Yorkshire, Sheffield, Rotherham and Wakefield.

One child in five in Bradford and Calderdale did not get a place at their first choice but in both districts around 95 per cent of pupils were accepted into one of their three choices.

Across the country around one pupil in six is expected to miss out on their first-choice school but official national figures are not published until next week.

Last year 92,000 of the 546,744 youngsters allocated places at secondary schools across the country failed to get their preferred option.

Several education authorities in the region saw more than nine out of 10 pupils get into their first choice school this year.

In Rotherham, 97 per cent got into their preferred secondary while in Doncaster the figure was 95.5 per cent.