Newham is the 'top London borough for school applications'

Newham is the best borough to live in when it comes to making primary school applications, it has been revealed.

Figures published by Newham Council revealed that it has topped the table of all 33 London boroughs for having the highest percentage of first place offers for primary school pupils.

The local authority received 4,696 applications by the closing date of 15 January 2014. Of those submissions, 1,955 (42 per cent) were 'on line' applications and 2,741 (58 per cent) were paper applications.

The vast majority of parents (91 per cent) got their first choice primary school, which is is ten percentage points above the London average of 81 per cent.

At the same time, Newham offered 98 per cent of pupils a place at one of their top three primaries compared to 92 per cent of London pupils. 

This places Newham at five percentage points above the London average.

Commenting on the figures, a council spokesperson said: "Newham Council received almost 5,000 applications for primary school places. Through the hard work of parents, schools and the council, we’ve been able to ensure that more of the borough’s children can attend the school of their choice."
 
Just a very small minority (one per cent) of people were unable to get into their first choice school.

The council added that 99 per cent of Newham pupils have places at one of their six preferred primary schools which is higher than the London average of 95 per cent.

This marks an improvement on the year before, in which 89 per cent of Newham’s pupils were offered places at their first preference school.

The council spokesperson added; "We’ve also invested in a pupil expansion programme to expand over subscribed schools and create new schools. This has enabled us to continue to provide an excellent learning environment with high quality teaching, meet the growing demand for school places, and ensure every Newham child has place in one of our outstanding primary schools."

Published 20th May, 2014

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