Thousands left with no school place

Parents today called for urgent action over an admissions crisis that has left more than 1,000 children without a school place next month.

The acute shortage of places at popular secondaries, revealed in a survey of local education authorities (LEAs), has already resulted in 18,000 appeals by parents whose children have been refused admission to the schools of their choice. The final total is expected to surpass last year's record of 63,300.

The survey showed that in 79 LEAs contacted last week, at least 1,064 children have yet to be allocated a school for the start of term next month, even though the admissions process started 11 months ago. The total for all 150 LEAs in the country is likely to be much higher.

The worst-hit areas include London and the home counties, where there can be enormous differences in performance between schools, and top secondaries are nearly 10 times oversubscribed. Growing numbers of parents are finding it difficult to get their children into the schools they nominate as fourth or fifth choice on application forms.

In Lewisham, where a parents' pressure group won a seat in the local elections after campaigning for action on the shortage of places, 194 children are without a school. In Hackney, the figure is 153. In Buckinghamshire 1,147 out of 5,600 places are subject to appeals. In Hertfordshire there are more than 800 appeals.

Today, campaigning parents called for ministers and local education chiefs to take action to resolve the crisis. Nigel Haselden, a member of the Secondary Schools Campaign in Lambeth, where 60 children are reported to be without a place, said: "The long selection and

appeals process is traumatic for parents and children. Until the Government and LEAs address the problems of lack of parental choice and lack of school spaces in areas such as ours, this situation will keep coming up."

Mr Haselden, whose group is set to meet Education Minister Stephen Twigg tomorrow to discuss the situation, said: "There is a woeful lack of places in Lambeth. Nearly two thirds of children are forced to go to secondary schools outside the borough when they reach year seven. We desperately need decent, new local secondary schools in our communities."

The survey's findings will be a blow to Labour's key policy pledge of giving parents more of a say in where their children are educated.

They reflect an increasing trend among parents to appeal. A spokesman for the Department of Education said new legislation would "streamline" the application process and eliminate the situation where some parents may hold multiple offers of places while others may have none.