MORE than 95 per cent of children in North Yorkshire have got into their first choice primary school.

In North Yorkshire 5,710 children, or 95.3 per cent got their first choice preferences – an improvement of 2.4 per cent on last year.

This year there have been 92 appeals against the local authority decision, of which 27 were successful, 22 were not successful and 70 were withdrawn.

Last year there were 170 appeals, of which 98 were successful, 72 were not successful and 132 were withdrawn. Twenty-one children did not get into same school as their sibling but this was because one had asked to go to another school, 19 were out of the catchment area for the school and one child had not yet been placed due to a late application. County Councillor Arthur Barker, North Yorkshire’s executive member for schools said: “We are delighted that so many of our families have once again been able to gain their first preference from their choice of schools.

“As a local authority we work with schools across the county to deliver the highest standards of education so that families who are not given first preferences will nevertheless be able to send their children to good schools.”

In East Riding, the local council has confirmed that 95.1 per cent of children secured a place at their first choice school, with 97.4 per cent getting one of their three preferences.

The local authority said it had received its highest rate of applications since 2003, reflecting an eight per cent rise in the number of births in the East Yorkshire in 2006/07 compared with 2005/06.

However, 83 applicants did not get a place at any of their preferred schools.

The council said it is dealing with 117 appeals. It could not confirm whether any of these were because children were unable to get into the same school as their sibling.

As reported in The Press yesterday, in York 15 children have been told they cannot join their older brothers and sisters at primary school this year.

About 155 children in the city have not got their first preference of primary school, leading to 52 appeals to the City of York Council – compared with 30 last year.