Hertfordshire primary school places revealed as 95 per cent get a preferred choice

This year 95 per cent of children in the county have been handed a place at one of their preferred primary schools.

Herts County Council received 15,267 applications for reception places, and of these 14,409 have been offered a space at one of their chosen schools.

Parents can list four schools that they want their children to attend and 12,425 – 81 per cent – were allocated their first ranked school – an increase of 255 on last year.

Deputy director for children’s services Andrew Simmons said: “We want all children to have access to a good education so they can reach their full potential, with the right number of school places in the right location, so I’m delighted that the vast majority of children have been allocated one of their ranked schools.

“This is a significant challenge given there are 10,000 more children under the age of four in Hertfordshire today than a decade ago.

“However, we are committed to ensuring that where the county’s population grows we build the appropriate infrastructure and have spent £170 million to provide more than 3,000 additional reception places, including 195 permanent places for September 2015.”

Parents and guardians can check their child’s school place at www.hertsdirect.org/primaryoptions.

• Was your child not offered a place at one of your preferred choices? If so, email news@royston-crow.co.uk.