One third of London children fail to get first choice of school

A THIRD of London parents are rejected by their first-choice schools amid fierce competition for places.

Nearly 80,000 families in the capital have until midnight tonight to complete their applications for secondary school places for next year. But one in three have been rejected by the school of their choice this year as London suffered the lowest success rate in England.

The latest figures show that, in some boroughs, barely half of children received an offer from their first-choice secondary school while almost 6,000 families failed to secure a place at any one of their six preferred options.

Competition to get into the best state secondaries is particularly intense this year. Parents who would otherwise pay to send their children private are said to be cutting costs and applying to state schools during the credit crunch.

The most popular schools can attract a dozen or more applications for every place and there have been reports of a rise in parents cheating on their application forms.

In one case, police had to be called to keep order at a grammar school on 11-plus exam day after 1,500 children applied for 125 places.

With 35.5 per cent of parents failing to secure offers from their first-choice schools, London has the worst record of any English region. Across the country, 18 per cent of applicants were refused by their first preference secondaries, according to the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Parents can choose to list up to six schools in order of preference on their application forms. But one in seven families in London did not receive an offer from any of their top three choices. The borough with the highest rejection rate was Hackney, where 14.4 per cent of applicants failed to win a place at any of their preferred schools.