Record numbers miss out on school places

Appeals over failure to secure top choice of secondary double as pupil intake continues to rise

APPEALS against places offered at secondary schools have doubled in six years, figures suggest, with record numbers of children expected to miss out on their first choice today.

More than half a million families will learn this morning which school their child will attend in September.

The number of pupils who fail to get a place at their preferred school is expected to increase by up to a third compared with last year in some parts of the country following a surge in applications. Around 115,000 children across England will be left disappointed due to a continuing shortage of places, according to analysis by The Good Schools Guide.

Pupils in London are most likely to miss out, with half of the capital’s local authorities said to be at “breaking point” over places. Research suggests that 34 per cent of all London children will start at secondary schools that are not their first preference.

It is the sixth consecutive year that demand for places has increased following a rise in birth rates that peaked in 2010/11. It is not due to plateau for another three or four years.

Increasing numbers are choosing to lodge appeals against their offers, hampering stretched local authorities and heaping work on academy chains.

In 2013, some 20,000 appeals were lodged, a figure expected to reach 40,000 this year. The majority of those appeals are heard, with an average success rate of about 25 per cent.

Bernadette John, director of The Good Schools Guide, warned parents that the “worst thing” they could do was to reject an offer straight away.

She said: “It has been known for a long time that secondary schools would need to accommodate increased pupil numbers but little action seems to have been taken. For the next few years, it will get worse.

“Some parts of the country simply do not have enough places to satisfy local demand and, elsewhere, many underperforming schools are rejected by families, resulting in the desperate rush as parents put their hopes in the good, local school which, of course, is hugely oversubscribed.”

She added: “The worst thing parents can do is to immediately reject the school offered, no matter how unwelcome. They need to hold this place while they research their options, which might include appealing to preferred schools or applying to other schools.”

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said there was “intense pressure” for places in some areas of the country for schools rated good or outstanding by Ofsted with the number of secondary pupils expected to increase by 428,000 over the next seven years.

He said: “It is vital that additional places are carefully planned at a regional level to match demographic need, and that everything possible is done to ensure every child can access a place in a good school not least by improving the totally inadequate level of funding currently provided to schools by the government.”