Nine out of 10 Swindon pupils have been offered a place in their first choice secondary school for next year.

Parents of Year 6 students across the town started receiving letters this week, letting them know where their children have been placed for the coming year.

Council officials have hailed the work of the school admissions team, which has allowed nearly all pupils to be offered a place one of their first three choices.

Councillor Fionuala Foley, Swindon Borough Council’s cabinet member for children’s services and school attainment, said: “Ensuring we have enough school places in the borough is a difficult task, particularly in a rapidly expanding town such as Swindon.

“This is the reason why we ask parents to put down three choices as it may not always be possible to secure every child’s first choice school.

“Having said that, to match more than 90 per cent of pupils with their first choice of secondary school, and 98 per cent with one of their three preferences, is no mean feat and is reflective of the tremendous amount of hard work that goes on behind the scenes by our school admissions team.”

In total, 2,655 applications were submitted to the council’s school admissions on time last year, ahead of the October 31 2017 deadline.

Of those, 91 per cent of pupils with timely applications were offered a place at their first-choice secondary school.

Parents were able to request a place in up to three schools, and 98 per cent were offered one of their top three preferences.

Priority for places was determined by the admission criteria for the school in question.

Letters for parents started to be sent out to parents on March 1, as were emails.

Applicants who submitted their preferences after the deadline were offered a place at the next nearest school with a place available at that time, if their preferred school was oversubscribed at that point.

However, the admissions team were able to offer 78 per cent of late applications a place at one of their preferred schools.

The school admissions team will also be offering primary, infant and junior school places for September 2018 on April 16.

Parents will be sent a letter informing them of the result of their application on that date.