Forty percent of children in Southwark do not get into their first choice secondary school, the latest figures show.
Camberwell and Peckham MP Harriet Harman’s new report into school choice in her constituency shows that Southwark – like many other London boroughs – is still trailing behind other local authorities in the UK.
The figures show just 59.7 per cent are successful in getting into their first choice secondary in the borough, compared with a national average of 82.1 per cent.
There has been huge success in improving standards across the borough, with nine in ten schools in our borough are now rated as ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted.
Harman’s report shows how three of eight schools in Camberwell and Peckham were oversubscribed with one – St Thomas The Apostle – seeing an increase of first choice applications by parents in Southwark of a third within just a year.
Parents are having more joy with primary places as nine in ten now get their first choice, attributed to an extra 4,425 places created in the last decade.