It was good news for parents in Newham last week, as the borough toped the table of London’s 33 boroughs for the highest percentage of children offered their first choice primary school place.

The London Borough of Newham has in previous years not faired well in previous years, but this year offered 97.89 of pupils a place in one of their three preferred school.

Just under half of Newhams primary school places were received online, with 4696 applications awarding pupils their desired school can be a complicated business much aided by new technology.

A council spokesperson said: “Newham Council received almost 5,000 applications for primary school places. Through the hard work of parents, schools and the council, we’ve been able to ensure that more of the borough’s children can attend the school of their choice.”

This turn around in education comes from the building of new schools like the new Keir Hardie Primary school that early this month celebrated the completion of their purpose built rooftop garden.

He went on to explain: “We’ve also invested in a pupil expansion programme to expand overly subscribed schools and create new schools. This has enabled us to continue to provide an excellent learning environment with high quality teaching, meet the growing demand for school places, and ensure every Newham child has place in one of our outstanding primary schools.”

In figures issued by London Councils as part of their Pan London data it is revealed only 1.34% of pupils were not offered any of their preferred schools and that they were in most cases offered an alternative place at a school less then a half miles walk of their homes.