Most parents given first-choice school

More than nine out of ten parents in Nottinghamshire secured a place at their first choice primary school for their children in September.

On Monday, the county council contacted 8,789 parents to let them know which school their child could attend.

The council said it had done all it could to ensure parents could send their child to a school they wanted.

The chairman of the council’s children and young people’s committee, Mr Philip Owen, said: “The situation as a whole continues to be encouraging as the majority of parents will be getting a school for which they made a preference.

“I am happy that every child in Nottinghamshire, whose parents applied before the deadline, will have a primary school place in September.

“Unfortunately, popular schools will always be over-subscribed and whatever the admissions criteria are for those schools, the likelihood is that there will be some disappointed families.

“As an authority, we aren’t complacent as we are aware of the pressures within the system and the forecast number of children coming through.

“We have a statutory duty to ensure we have sufficient school places across all schools, irrespective of whether they are academies, local authority maintained or otherwise governed.

“We continue to make plans to deal with these continued pressures in the years to come.”