NUMBERS of families in the district allocated their first choice primary school has risen.

Figures just released show the proportion of pupils given a space in their preferred primary school is 88.63 per cent, up from 86 per cent last year.

It means that 6,891 children will be starting at their first choice school in September.

But 167 families were allocated a school that was not even in their top five choices.

Every family is asked to supply a list of five schools when applying for a place for their child, and this year over 96 per cent of applicants received one of their top three choices.

The percentage allocated “against preference” – not getting a place at any of the schools they applied to – was 2.15 per cent. However, this was down from 3.3 per cent last year.

The new figures show that 6.15 per cent of families (478) received their second preference, 1.85 per cent (144) their third, 0.77 per cent (60) their fourth and 0.46 per cent (35) their fifth.

In recent years, a number of schools in the district have been expanded to make space for additional pupils.

Michael Jameson, strategic director of children’s services on Bradford Council, said: “It’s good news that more families in the district have been able to gain a place at their preferred schools this year.

“We understand how important it is to families to send their children to the schools they want to attend and we will always work together with families as best we can to ensure they get a preferred school place whenever possible. We have also worked very hard in recent years to increase the number of primary school places across the district and we are doing the same at secondary level as we plan ahead for where the demand for places will be in future.”

Councillor Susan Hinchcliffe, executive for education on Bradford Council, said: “It’s been a stressful time for parents who have been waiting to find out which school their child has been allocated.

“The increase in children getting their first preference is good news for many families and is as a result of the focus we’ve had in the last few years on creating more school places in the primary sector.

“However there’s still more to do and more school expansion projects are in the pipeline.”

Councillor Debbie Davies, Conservative education spokesman, said: “Government funding to expand primary schools has helped, but I think there will always be some disappointment.

“I think the key thing is to get to a stage where all schools are ones where parents would be happy to send their child to.”

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