Havering among best-in-class for primary school places
More than 89 percent of children starting school in Havering this September have been offered their first choice of primary school.
The data, released by London Councils, shows that the first choice places offered by Havering was slightly higher (at 89.9 percent) than the London average of 89.1 percent.
While over 96 percent have been offered one of their top three choices.
Nearly 3,300 children will be heading to primary school this September.
London primary schools received 85,336 applications in total this year, a 2.2 percent decrease compared to last year.
Councillor Ray Morgon, Leader of Havering Council, said:
“Unlike many other local authorities, Havering is not seeing a huge reduction in demand for primary school places, instead, we have seen an increase in the number of Havering residents applying for primary places from last year.
“In many London boroughs, there are plans to close schools because they do not have enough pupils to fill them.
"This is definitely not the case in Havering which has one of the fastest growing school populations in the country.
“Meeting parental preferences is always a challenge, but we always strive to do so, as we want pupils to be able to attend the school of their choice.
“I’d therefore like to thank the Schools Admissions Team and everyone who worked so hard to ensure that the process went as smoothly as possible and supported parents to find a school place for their child.
“I’d also like to thank the school organisation team who have worked with schools to deliver an expansion programme which has added much-needed school places in recent years.”