More children get preferred school place in Buckinghamshire (From Bucks Free Press)

More children get preferred school place in Buckinghamshire

5:10pm Wednesday 3rd March 2010 in

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MORE children got into a secondary school of their preference last year than in the previous year, new figures show.

Some 87.6 per cent of children got one of their top three preferences for this September compared to 85.9 per cent last year.

A total 94.5 per cent got into one of six preference schools compared to 92.6 per cent last year.

The number of children who got their first preference school, 54 per cent, remains low as many do not qualify for grammars when put as a first choice.

This is 86.2 per cent once the 11+ is taken into account, said Buckinghamshire County Council.

How did you fare? Leave your comments below. It said 96.7 per cent of Buckinghamshire pupils were offered a place at their first preference catchment school this year.

And 95.3 per cent who passed the 11+ have been given the catchment grammar school of their choice.

Some 97.5 per cent of future upper school pupils will be attending their first choice catchment upper school.

Marion Clayton, council cabinet member for achievement and learning, said: “Because we operate a selective education system, and the vast majority of parents put a grammar school as the first choice for their child, our allocations statistics cannot be read in the same way as other non-selective authorities.

“Overall 54% of our pupils received their first choice, but it is a very different story when we look at the statistics in more detail.

“In fact, we have an exemplary record of which we are rightly proud with over 95 per cent of the county's pupils being offered the catchment school of their choice.”

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