'Population surge' means thousands of pupils can't get a place at primary school

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Thousands of parents missed out on their first choice of primary school this year or have been left without a place at all.

A surge in the number of families moving into some boroughs has led to 'unprecedented' demand for places, council officials said.

One in four parents in the worst-affected areas have been denied a place for their child at their preferred schools even though youngsters traditionally attend their nearest primary.

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School days: But thousands of primary school-age children are missing out because of the demand for places is too great

More than 250 parents in one borough have not been allocated any primary school after demand for places "exceeded all expectations".

In Kingston Upon Thames, where 200 four-year-olds are unplaced, parents are considering suing the council for the cost of fees if they are forced to send their children to private schools.

Parents claim the authority failed to plan properly for growing demand from new residents in the borough and those applying from outside.

They claim some schools, for example, now have large Polish populations but the council has failed to increase school capacity to match growth in pupil numbers.

Kingston Council said "more families moving into the borough" partly explained the rise in applicants but also blamed the credit crunch for reducing demand for private schools.

"The demand for places has exceeded the projected need based on the usual indicators, such as increased birth rate and local housing developments," a council spokesman said.

"There is evidence of a similar trend right across South-West London, including Kingston, Richmond, Elmbridge, Merton and Sutton," the spokesman added.

The council said 76 per cent of parents living in Kingston had been offered their first-choice school and 13 per cent were currently "unplaced" - around 200.

In nearby Merton, 258 children are still without places, and in Richmond 63 children are also waiting.

Joanna Cobley, 39, a geophysicist, and her husband Jonathan, a 42-year-old IT consultant, said their son Daniel, four, was rejected by all three of their chosen schools in Surbiton despite living about a mile away from all.

"I was incredibly angry," Mrs Cobley said. "We will consider the independent route but that's not a position we wish to be forced into."

Vicky Grinnell-Wright, 33, a consultant, said she and her husband James, 38, an accountant, faced the "crippling" cost of school fees if the council failed to create extra capacity at popular schools in the borough.

"If the council is welcoming people from outside the borough, building houses and flats and letting people subdivide houses into flats, it has a duty to increase the facilities available to service those people," she said.

Ministers are already under fire over secondary school admissions after one in five children failed to get into their first-choice school for September.

While secondary school places were offered in early March, primary places are allocated later and on no fixed date.

The Kingston Council spokesman said: "The situation is expected to improve after May 14, once parents who have received an offer either accept or decline a place for their child."

Dave Hill, director of Children, Schools and Families at Merton, said:

"Vacancies do exist across the borough and we are hoping to increase capacity in the most popular area."

Margaret Morrissey, spokesman for the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, said a lack of school places at primary level was an issue across the country.

"It is a sad and sorry day if parents have to buy into independent education because they can't get the schools they want."

•Nearly 50 GCSE and A-level papers are being pulped just days before exams start after the fourth security breach to hit the country's biggest exam board in four years.

Examiners are redrafting exams in 15 subjects - from biology to French and media studies - after thieves stole a van transporting papers to schools in Hertfordshire.

Officials said the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance had waited two weeks to notify schools of the breach while contingency plans were put in place after some papers were unaccounted for.

 

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