While the figure of 85.28 per cent of primary school children being allocated their first choice is only slightly below the national average of 87 per cent, that will be of scant consolation to the parents who have been unsuccessful.

Almost 2,000 pupils have had their school applications turned down, and those parents who received the letter yesterday telling them their son or daughter would not be going to their school of choice will have been left devastated.

Children only get one chance at education, the stress of trying to get them into the right school is incredible, and it is understandable that they want to get their child into the school they believe will give them the best chance of succeeding in life.

But sadly, this issue of allocation of places is not going away, and there will always be those left disappointed.

And however determined they may be to get into one particular school, parents need to follow the advice of both the Labour and Conservative education spokesmen and put more than one option on their application so they will at least end up somewhere they have actively selected, which more than 1,700 sets of parents did not do.

Short of levelling the playing field to somehow create a situation where every primary school is perceived as equal, there is little that can be done to ease this issue while the choices system remains in place.

That will be of no comfort to the 1,724 sets of parents who have not been allocated their first choice in this process, but the long term aim must surely be to ensure all our primary schools are offering an equally high standard of education.