Hampshire County Council urges parents to submit all three school preferences for new starters

AS the deadline for new school place applications approaches, Hampshire County Council is reminding parents that they must specify three preferences.

Statistics show that 98% of parents secure a school place for their child at one of their three preferences and in the last five years 90-93% were offered a place at their first choice.

The council's cabinet member for children's services, Cllr Roz Chadd said: "Each year our admissions team deals with over 14,000 applications for a place in reception year – the first year of school.

"From previous years’ experience, we know that some parents believe that if they provide just one choice of school on their application, this will give weight to that choice and mean it is more likely they will be successful in being allocated a place at that school – but this is not necessarily the case and a very small number of parents have been left disappointed."

She added: "This can happen when their chosen school is oversubscribed which means there are more applications than the school has available places. This can lead to parents being allocated a place at another school which could be out of their catchment area.

"If they have made the most of the opportunity to nominate three preferences, they are highly likely to secure a place at one of their preferred schools."

Anyone who has already submitted their application can log back in to the online system to make changes before the closing date of 15th January. To change a paper application, email admissions.team@hants.gov.uk