Hundreds of south London children have no primary school place (From Croydon Guardian)

Hundreds of south London children have no primary school place

10:53am Saturday 17th May 2008 in

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Four-year-olds in boroughs including Kingston, Merton, Richmond, Croydon and Sutton have been left stranded with no offer of a primary school place for this September.

In Kingston, one in ten children have failed to get an offer of a place at any of their chosen schools, according to figures released this week.

Kingston Council said there had been a surge in demand for state school places, with the credit crunch leaving many parents unable to afford private education.

Croydon was also badly affected, with 255 children without a place.

Meanwhile, Merton Council is taking legal action after it lost a request to expand popular primary school Wimbledon Chase to take 90 children in its reception class.

Its application was rejected by the Office of the Schools Adjudicator.

This year 189 children in Merton have not been offered a place at any of their chosen schools. In Richmond, 63 kids were unplaced.

Figures for Hounslow and Wandsworth were not available.