100,000 pupils to miss out on their first choice school

UP TO 100,000 pupils are likely to miss out on their first choice of secondary school amid higher competition for places, analysis shows.

More than half a million families in England will learn today which school their child will attend in September, on what is known as “national offer day”.

The number of pupils who fail to get a place at their preferred school is due to rise by 7 per cent this year, according to The Good Schools Guide.

The research indicates that one in five children will fail to secure a place at their first choice school, up from around one in six last year. Twenty-five thousand children will fail to get a place at any of the secondary schools listed in their application, the analysis also shows. The demand for places has increased sharply over the past five years, as a bulge in the primary school population following a rise in birth rates moves on to secondary schools.

Families in urban areas are most likely to be affected, with parts of London, Greater Manchester, Bristol and Birmingham expected to receive more applications than they have places. In 2013-14, there were just under half a million pupils applying for secondary school places, which had risen to over 560,000 by 2017-18. Bernadette John, director of The Good Schools Guide, said that Department for Education officials had failed to address the problem of insufficient school places.

“It is incredibly stressful for parents when their child is offered a place at a school a long journey from home, or with a damning Ofsted report, or which for very good reasons they have not chosen for their child,” she said.

Last year, 92,810 children failed to secure their first choice school, according to official figures, with 21,937 children failing to secure a place at any of their preferred choice schools. Only around a quarter of appeals for secondary school places are successful.