The beginning of this month marked the end of a 4 month anxious wait for parents all around the country as they found out which secondary school their children would attend. However for 61 of the youngsters in Kingston it marked the beginning of a stress-filled period of their lives since they were unable to secure any secondary school placements.

This figure has more than doubled compared to last year and numbers are predicted to keep on rising in the years to come until the opening of a new secondary school in North Kingston in 2015. Critics say that we should be focusing more on offering placements to children living in the Kingston catchment area to avoid children from other boroughs stealing their places.

The applications (which were sent off in November) made parents pick 3 schools and then list them in order of preference. In Kingston 60 per cent of children were offered their first choice, 19 per cent their second choice and 9 per cent were offered their third choice. This meant that 5 per cent received an offer not even on their preference list, and 61 youngsters were not offered a placement at all. The overall number of applicants went up by 9 this year up to 1,565.

Parents now have until March 16 to respond to the offers so figures will not be finalized until after March 16. The Council released a statement saying that the numbers were in line with previous years and expectations, and that they were confident about being able to secure a placement for all applicants.

In the neighboring borough of Richmond, there is much better news with all applicants being offered a secondary school placement, however only 86 per cent of those received offers from their top three preferences. Of a total of 1,548 children 62 per cent did receive their first preference with 14.7 per cent receiving their second and 5.p per cent receiving their third. A Richmond council spokesman said they were happy with the figures and were on set to keep hitting their targets in the years to come.

This year has yielded some tough figures and has raised the bar even more for next year. However on a lighter note the quality of Kingston’s and Richmond’s schools has definitely risen with many schools. Teddington Orleans park and both Tiffin boys and girls receiving over 1000 applicants a piece.