Quarter of pupils miss out (From Times Series)

Quarter of pupils miss out

8:42am Thursday 6th March 2008

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A quarter of children applying to Barnet schools will not be granted their first or second preference, according to Government figures released this week.

Of all the pupils seeking to study at a Barnet secondary school, 75.6 per cent were given one of their top two preferences. This is 3.4 per cent below the London average, and 20 per cent below Harrow, the borough with the best record.

Only 11 out of the 33 boroughs had a lower percentage, with Southwark faring the worst, at 69.6 per cent.

But the percentage of pupils gaining entry to their first choice Barnet school was an improvement on last year, up one per cent to 62 per cent, with 90 per cent of children being given one of their top six preferences - up five per cent from last year.

Barnet Council attributed the statistics to the popularity of its schools, which are highly oversubscribed. This year, 1,081 girls applied for 93 places at Henrietta Barnett School, in Central Square, Hampstead Garden Suburb, after its 2007 GCSE and A-level results placed it top in the country in many league tables.

Councillor Fiona Bulmer, cabinet member for children's services, said: "Many of our schools receive significantly more applicants than there are places. However, the number of parents offered their first preference school in Barnet has actually increased this year, and 90 per cent of parents have been offered a place at one of their preferred schools, all of which are high-performing good schools.

"The council's school admissions team is working closely with parents to support them during the process.

"It is also important to remember these figures will change as parents consider the offers they have received over the next two weeks and additional places then become available."

London Councils, a think tank that represents the interests of all 33 councils, confirmed that Barnet had an uphill struggle to cater for everyone wishing to take up school places in the borough.

A spokesman said: "Barnet has done well, considering its position. While some boroughs may not be meeting first preferences from their own pupils as highly as others, they may well be meeting a high proportion of first preferences from a neighbouring borough.

"For example, some school admissions policies use geographical distance from the school as one admission criterion. As a result, good schools situated on the border between two boroughs could end up taking more pupils from the neighbouring borough than its host borough."

Dr John Marincowitz, headteacher of Queen Elizabeth's School, in Queen's Road, Barnet, said Barnet was "superb" at dealing with admissions, but believed the whole system was in need of review.

He said: "This is nothing to do with Barnet, it is a much more widespread problem. There is far, far too much bureaucracy involved in the administration, with local authorities attempting to co-ordinate with one another.

"It seems that these days parents are much more anxious than ever."

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