Newham tops London table for primary school offers

Figures just released  show that Newham Council have topped the table of all 33 London boroughs for having the highest percentage of first place offers for primary school pupils.

Newham Council received 4,696 applications by the closing date of 15 January 2014. Of these applications, 1955 (41.63 per cent) were ‘on line’ applications and 2741 (58.37 per cent) were paper applications.

The figures show that Newham Council offered 90.76 per cent of pupils their first choice primary school. This is ten per cent above the London average of 80.74 per cent.

In addition, Newham offered 97.89 of pupils a place at one of their top three primaries compared to 92 per cent of London pupils. This is was more than five per cent above the London average.

It was also revealed that 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.

The figures are up from the previous year, which saw 89.21 per cent of Newham’s pupils offered places at their first preference school.

A council spokeswoman 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.

“We’ve also invested in a pupil expansion programme to expand overly 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 a place in one of our outstanding primary schools.”