MANY children in Bradford are missing out on places in their preferred schools because their parents are filling out application forms incorrectly.

Bradford Council’s admissions team say that on the “top five” preference lists, some parents are listing the same school five times in a bid to get their top choice.

Although the percentage of families getting their first choice schools went up this year, 89.86 per cent for primary schools and 77 per cent for secondary schools, there were still a number of families missing out on any of their top five choices.

When parents apply for a school place, they are told to give their top five choice schools so that even if they miss out on a place at their first choice, they will still be allocated a place at a schools they have shown a preference for.

In 2017, 106 families (1.36 per cent) didn’t get into any primary school they put a preference for, and 319 families (4.07 per cent) didn’t get any of their secondary school preferences.

An annual report into school admissions, which went before Bradford Council’s Children’s Services Scrutiny Committee last week, said: “Unfortunately, some parents continue to disregard the advice given to parents by the Admissions Team regarding preferencing.

“Parents continue to only preference one school, preference one school five times; use multiple preferences for schools that use fair banding and random allocation admission policies; preference schools whose ‘Priority Area’ they do not reside in; do not preference their local school or the school in whose ‘Priority Area’ they do reside.”

Discussing the report at the meeting, Councillor Sinead Engel (Lab, Clayton) said: “I still get parents coming to me to say they haven’t got the schools they want for their child. The instructions for applying for places are clear to me, but some parents don’t seem to see it as clearly.”

Rachel Phillips, strategic leader for admissions, said: “I don’t know how we can tell parents more clearly.

“All the information is on the front page of the forms we give to parents. We see a lot of parents jumping through hoops to get their first child into the school they want, but then don’t do the same for their second or third child.

“We make things very clear to parents, but sometimes it is difficult to understand what more we can do to help them.”

The report reveals that the most pressure for secondary school places this year had been in BD5 (West Bowling), BD7 (Great Horton), BD8/9 (Manningham/Girlington/Heaton) BD15(Allerton).

A number of schools had agreed to increase the amount pf pupils they took on this year to help deal with the increase pressure on places. These schools were Beckfoot Upper Heaton, which let in an extra 25 pupils, Carlton Bolling (30) Oasis Academy Lister Park (15) Grange Technology College (30), Buttershaw (30) and Titus Salt (10).

The report says majority of parents who were "allocated against preference" this year "did receive an offer of a school within a ‘reasonable’ distance."

A number of primary schools have expanded in the past few years to deal with the pressure for extra places, and the report points out that several secondary schools are permanently expanding from 2018.

Two new secondary schools Bradford Girls Academy, which will have 120 places and Eden Boys Academy, which will also have 120 places, will open in 2019.