Migration boom crowding out British kids from secondary schools with almost all ‘outstanding’ schools oversubscribed
NEARLY all the best secondary schools in parts of the UK are oversubscribed, new figures have revealed.
The migration-fuelled baby boom has forced half of all secondary schools to turn children down – in London, the figure is two thirds.
The new statistics have shown schools rated as “outstanding” by Ofsted receive more applicants than there are places available in nearly 100% of cases in some of the most overpopulated regions.
In the West Midlands, 97% of outstanding-rated schools are oversubscribed, while in the East of England it is 94%.
92% of schools in London – which has been hit by high migration levels over the past 20 years – have too many applicants.
Approximately 63% of secondary schools rated “good” or “outstanding” throughout the UK are oversubscribed.
The growth in pupil population which has caused a places crisis in primary schools for a number of years is transferring to secondary schools as the extra kids grow older.
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According to FindASchool, a service which compiles figures for school placement, hundreds of new secondary schools will be needed in the next 10 years.
Website spokesman Dominic Blackburn told the : “The data we collected shows an alarming trend that secondary schools are becoming increasingly difficult to secure a place at.
“Clearly, not enough is being done to increase the number of school places and give parents a genuine choice of school.
“The days of assuming you can just send your children to the best local school where they will get a place are over.”
The latest figures suggest kids’ chances of attending an “outstanding” secondary school depends heavily on where they live.
The East Midlands have the lowest number of oversubscribed secondary schools at 63%.
The second lowest is the South West at 76%, followed by the North East at 79%.
According to government statistics, around one in six school children in England missed out on a place at their top school choice this year.
In 2015, 84.2% of 11-year-olds in the UK were given a spot at their first preference, compared with 84.1% this year.
Department for Education (DfE) figures released in July suggest the secondary school population will rise to 3.04 million by 2020 and peak at 3.33 million in 2025.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “These figures do not paint the full picture as they do not take into account the new places that will be created in the future, nor the surplus places that are already available.
“Over nine in 10 parents in England received an offer at one of their top three preferred secondary schools this year.
“We are delivering good quality school places to ensure every child has an excellent education that allows them to reach their full potential.
“Nearly 600,000 additional pupil places were created between May 2010 and May 2015, in response to the growth in the school age population, and we are investing £7 billion in new places up to 2021.”
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