THE percentage of families with children allocated their first choice of primary school in the district has risen again.

Anxious parents of youngsters approaching primary school age across the Bradford district found out over the Easter bank holiday which school they will start at in September.

This year, the percentage of families getting a place at their first choice was 89.72, amounting to 6,755 families and up from last year’s 88.63 per cent. The number has now increased for each of the last four years.

Two per cent of families, 156, were allocated a school not in their top five choices. That was down from 2.15 per cent last year and 3.3 per cent the year before.

Overall, 97 per cent of applicants received a place at one of their top three preferences, 0.4 per cent higher than last year.

Six per cent were allocated their second preference, 1.5 per cent their third, 0.5 per cent their fourth and 0.3 per cent their fifth.

Judith Kirk, Bradford Council’s deputy director for education, employment and skills, said: “We understand how important it is to families to send their children to schools they want to attend and we work hard to ensure this can be achieved wherever possible.

“Since 2010 the council has invested in creating 8,500 new primary school places across the district to help schools to meet demand. It is encouraging to see the district’s figures improve again this year.”

Recent years have seen many Bradford district schools increase their pupil numbers.

Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, Lib Dem leader on the council, said she had heard of issues with parents not getting their choices in the BD2 and BD10 areas of Bradford. She added: “Despite pressuring the council, they still haven’t got all the places identified considering all the new houses that are planned.”

Cllr Debbie Davies, Conservative spokesman for education, said: “These figures show that it is good there have been school expansions. I think the council is quite good at looking forward to see where the demand will be, but I think there are a few areas where we could do with more primary places.”