ALL children who had not been given a place at Southampton primary schools are now attending classes – two months after term started.

As reported by the Daily Echo last month, some 75 youngsters had been left waiting for places at infant, junior and primary schools across the city, despite their parents having applied on time.

But there are still around 20 Southampton children, whose families applied after the start of term deadline, who are currently without places.

The council said those applications, which are mainly from people moving into the city during term time, are on average taking less than three weeks to process.

The crisis at the start of the academic year meant nearly twice as many frustrated families had been left fighting for a place compared with 12 months earlier, leaving many complaining their children were missing out on vital time in the classroom.

The city council blamed unprecedented demand on the already bursting- at-the-seams primary system in Southampton, and said urgent negotiations were ongoing with schools to expand their capacity and take the little ones left at home.

Rising birth rates and a second successive year in which the number of people arriving in Southampton was greater than those leaving the city contributed to the problem.

But the authority said all children have now been allocated places.

The council’s education boss, Cllr Jeremy Moulton said: “The city saw an unprecedented number of families who are new to Southampton applying for school places this year. This created pressures on places above and beyond what we had already planned for. Plans for the coming years will now account for this.”

Southampton City Council is currently in the middle of a major scheme to add 3,000 new places at 20 primary schools around the city.

Some are increasing the number of classes they have, while some infant and junior schools are becoming primaries to take youngsters through from four to 11 years.