100,000 to lose in the election of the first school23: 05 26/02/2010, Jessica Shepherd, education, education policy, guardian.co.uk, news, school admi

100,000 to lose in the election of the first school23: 05 26/02/2010, Jessica Shepherd, education, education policy, guardian.co.uk, news, school admissions, secondary schools, news, United Kingdom, Guardian Unlimited

Despite the flight of private schools closed and comprehensive, national day of supply will satisfy the majority of parents in England,

More than 100,000 children across England are expected to find that they have lost in a secondary school in his family prefers next week.

Monday is a national offer, when parents learn that the school their 10 - or 11 years will attend from September. This year, with claims of 540,000 children, competition for places is likely to be even harder than usual.

Some parents affected by unemployment and recession have decided not to send their children to private school and used to a secondary status. The diminishing number of secondary schools compound the problem - at least 85 comprehensive closed in the last two years.

About a fifth of all the candidates - or 108,000 children - are likely to lose their school of first choice, "said Ian Craig, director of the watchdog school admissions. At least 2,000 parents desperate for a place in their top-choice school would have resorted to trying to cheat the system, some successful, he said.

Parents in cities and in some of the poorest parts of the country are less likely to receive their first choice. Meanwhile, those living in rural areas are more likely to be assigned to your school favored due to a declining population of 11 years has eased the pressure on places.

In Birmingham, the proportion of parents who will not be given a place in their first choice school is believed to have increased slightly over last year, when he was just over 40%.

In Bristol, 281 parents have a wide - Redland Green - as their first choice. The school has only 189 seats.

In some London boroughs, more than one in four parents will be disappointed, although the proportion of parents to obtain a place in their top-choice school will be higher than last year.

In Barking, east London, on 29% of parents do not have their first preference, compared with 37% last year. In Tower Hamlets, in central London, 25.8% of parents will be rejected by their first choice. Last year was 27.9%.

Meanwhile, in Dorset, 93% of parents will be offered their first choice, compared with 88% last year.

Last year, nationwide, one in six children - 92.000 - were denied a place in their first choice, up to one in three in London and its suburbs. In the municipalities of inner London, Wandsworth, Southwark and Lambeth, 55% of parents have their first choice, while over 97% did in Cornwall, Northumberland and Wakefield.

All applicants for a place in a secondary state this year will have one, but about 20% is unlikely to offer its top priority, "Craig said. Local authorities have sought to maximize the number of parents to their first choice school, he said, but "not always going to be the schools exceeds supply and, by definition, means that some parents will not have their first election. "

Chris Hamnett, Professor of Geography at King's College London, who has researched the school admissions, said the most popular schools in the capital, the ratio of applications to places is likely to be 6:1 and that the competition would be "very intense".

Craig A report written for the education secretary, Ed Balls, in a fraud attempt by parents to be published later this month. Schools withdrew 1200 seats in elementary and secondary schools this year after they discovered his parents had tried to break the rules, but at least twice of not being discovered, he said.

The most common ways parents who commit fraud are admissions to temporarily change the address to fit into the catchment of a school or send their children to live with his grandparents, whose house is in the basin. More than 2,000 parents is likely to have tried these or other methods, said Craig.

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families, said: "The vast majority of parents have a place in a school of their choice - most in the school of first choice. We know that most parents are satisfied with the revenue system, happy with the choice of local schools and the education of their children receive. "

On 11 March the government published figures on how many parents have their preferences for first, second and third in all local authorities in the country.


Waiting and hoping
Sam Murray is anxiously awaiting a letter or email on Monday to confirm that her son, Dylan, has a place in their school of first choice - a comprehensive in Enfield, north London.

Murray is hopeful. His first choice, school Broomfield, may be superior to the offer but his family lives a short bus ride. "I had to be realistic," she says. "One of the other nearby schools are Catholic and I knew we did not meet their criteria."

Dylan is eager to go to Broomfield, because most of their primary school friends are going there. His mother is very concerned also because she is happy with what the inspectors have said about the general and says he has heard "good things" from other parents with children there.

"The only thing we could mean a place if there had been a large influx of parents with children old Dylan in my area. I do not think what has happened."

Murray was not intimidated by the admissions process. She knows her work as head of policy for education charity the Advisory Center for Education. "I imagine it must be very difficult for parents whose mother tongue is English, though," she says.

School Admissions
High schools
Education policy
Jessica Shepherd


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