"Choosing the right school for your child is one of the most important and stressful things a parent will do. Everyone wants their child in a school where they can be happy, safe and reach their full potential."
Commenting on children today being offered a secondary school place, Cllr Teresa Heritage, Vice Chairman of the Local Government Association’s Children and Young People Board, said:
"Choosing the right school for your child is one of the most important and stressful things a parent will do. Everyone wants their child in a school where they can be happy, safe and reach their full potential.
“Councils have continued to respond to the ever-increasing demand by helping to create an extra 37,000 secondary school places back in 2018. This was again a demonstrable record that they are doing everything they can to rise to the challenge of ensuring no child goes without a place.
”However, with two-thirds of secondary schools now academies, it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep up with demand. Councils have a legal duty to ensure capacity but currently have no powers to open new secondary schools or direct academies to expand. This ruling needs to be amended as soon as possible to ensure as many children as possible get the places they want.
“Every child should have a fair chance of getting into their parents’ preferred school and councils and schools work extremely hard to try and ensure that as many pupils as possible are allocated their first preference.”