Education Nearly 1,000 empty primary school places next term

THE falling birthrate and an exodus of families with young children out of the city means there will be almost a thousand empty places in Bristol's primary school reception classes for a second year running this September, renewing concerns of budget cuts, job losses and schools closing across the city.

- Tristan CORK

New detailed data has been released by Bristol City Council for this September’s intake of four-year-olds starting school for the first time in just a few weeks’ time. And it reveals that, despite the population of Bristol exceeding half a million for the first time ever last month, the decline in school-age children is continuing.

The data reveals how many each children of the 98 state primary schools in Bristol can accommodate in their reception year classes, how many parents put that school down as either the first, second or third preference back in the spring, and how many children are scheduled to start in each of those schools in the first week of September.

Of the 98 schools listed, 83 of them didn’t have the numbers of first-preference applications to fill their Reception year places this September. Only 15 were ‘oversubscribed, with more parents putting that school down as their first preference than the school has places for.

Even after taking in second and sometimes third preference choices, 65 of the 98 primary schools in Bristol will start September's school year with fewer pupils in Reception year than they could take.

In total, the number of four-year-olds starting school in September in Bristol is 4,534, while the total capacity of all the reception classes across the 98 primary schools in the city is 5,480 - which means there will be 946 empty spaces across the city in September.

It's the second year running schools have been massively under-subscribed. Last September, the Post reported there were 970 surplus places across the city, which led to fears some schools might have to close or merge.