SCHOOL leaders have said the creation of much-needed school places across Hampshire is keeping pace with increased demand with high numbers of pupils securing a place at their first choice secondary school for September.

Parents waited nervously for the emails to arrive yesterday which informed them whether their child had successfully secured a place at one of their preferred schools.

Record numbers of applications were received with 500 more applications processed by Hampshire County Council than in 2015. Never-the-less high numbers of pupils were successful in their applications.

School bosses in Southampton managed to secure the first choice preferences for more than 2,000 pupils who applied.

Of the 2,255 families which applied for places, 2,061 (91.4 per cent) got their first choice 134 (5.9 per cent) got their second choice and 19 (0.8 per cent) got their third choice. The remaining 41 places allocated were offered to those pupils whose parents made no formal application to ensure no school child in the city was without an offer of a place in September.

Those figures were up on last year when of the 2,191 applications received, 86.4 per cent got a place at their first choice secondary school.

Hampshire County Council was able to offer over 98 per cent of pupils a place at the secondary school of their choice with 93.6 per cent getting a place at their first preferred school.

Councillor Peter Edgar, Hampshire County Council’s executive member for education, said: “We have again been able to offer a very high number of pupils a place at their preferred school.

“That’s a significant achievement considering the size of the county and increasing demand for school places – we received 13,467 on-time applications this year, up by over 500 from last year.

“Pupil numbers continue to rise, and I am pleased to say that our investment in schools to provide the additional places is keeping pace, thanks to our strong track record in planning for the future.

“I understand there will be some disappointment for those parents who did not secure a place at one of their chosen schools, but every child whose parents applied for a place at a Hampshire secondary school, has been offered one.

“There are always individual schools with exceptionally high demand, which is a credit to the high standard of teaching at these schools.”

The numbers are similar to those last year with just over 98 per cent of parents securing a place for their child at a secondary school of their choice, with 97.6 per cent being offered a place at their first or second preference school in September 2015.

Pupils who did not secure a place at one of their chosen schools this year will be allocated a place at a school, near to where they live, with available spaces. However, they are able to appeal that decision and can put their child’s name down on their preferred school’s waiting list.