Seventy children have been left without a place at a borough Secondary school following the allocation of places announced last week.

The lack of places comes despite the fact that the number of 11-year-olds entering Secondary schools in the borough this September is down by around 90 on 2021

Richmond Council said efforts are being made to find the 70 youngsters a place and it is confident this will be possible before the start of the next school year in September.

Figures published today also reveal that one in seven youngsters making the transfer from Primary school failed to get any of their top three preferred choices.

However, the borough has cemented itself as one of the best places in Britain for education, which means children can expect high standards regardless of which Secondary they move on to.

The number of children applying for a place this year was 2,173, which is around 90 fewer than in 2021.

The Council said 64% have been offered a place at their first preference secondary school, which is an improvement on last year's figure of 60%.

At the same time 85% have been offered one of their top three preferences compared to last year's figure of 82%. This means 15% did not with the result youngsters may have to travel further to school.

The Council said that, currently, there are 70 children without an offer of a secondary school place, compared with 114 at this time last year.

Cllr Penny Frost, Chair of the Council's Education and Children's Services Committee, said: "Our schools are deservedly popular owing to the fact that they offer excellent, inclusive education for local children. In fact, all our secondary schools are now rated good or outstanding by Ofsted.

"In order to maximise the number of offers we made on 1 March, we worked with a number of schools to offer additional places on National Offer Day in the expectation that, in most cases, they will return to their published admission numbers by September.

"This approach has been taken in order to reduce uncertainty for parents/carers as far as possible. I am very grateful to schools for enabling additional places to be offered.

"But I know that this will be an anxious time for those children and their families who are yet to receive an offer.

"Parents/carers are advised to read carefully the notes which explain what to do next. We know from experience that sufficient places will become available to be re-offered to those on the waiting-lists from 28 March onwards.

Cllr Frost added: "I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the schools in the borough for their work over the past two years in the fight against COVID-19.

"This has been an especially challenging time for schools and I know that there has been a huge amount of work that has gone into making sure that children have remained safe and able to continue their education."

All 11 secondary school in the borough are now rated as 'good' or 'outstanding'.

Teddington School improved its rating from 'requires improvement' to 'good' after an inspection in November 2021.

The school was recognised for its inclusive and supportive classroom environment where pupils enjoy their lessons, feel happy and are safe.

It has followed success at both Twickenham School and Hampton High, which have both moved from 'requires improvement' to 'good'.