THOUSANDS of anxious parents are set to find out which primary school their child has been offered a place at.

Oxfordshire County Council will inform families today which schools prospective pupils have been allocated - and the vast majority will be relieved by the result.

More than 93 per cent of the 7,125 children, who are due to start school in September, have received their first choice preference.

This is up by about one per cent on last year, despite a slight increase in applicants, and above national averages from previous years.

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The council's director for children’s services, Lucy Butler, said: "Once again we are delighted to be able to offer the overwhelming majority of families their first preference school, and wish all the children the very best for the coming school years.

"We constantly monitor demand for places and work closely with all schools to ensure there is sufficient capacity, both across the county as a whole and in local areas.

"Oxfordshire compares very favourably with other parts of the country on school places and our strong track record on first-preference offers is down to that effective forward planning.

"We aim to give every Oxfordshire child a good start in life, and this is part of that work."

With about seven per cent of pupils missing out on their top preference, that means about 500 pupils did not receive their first choice.

Parents and carers were invited to apply for their child's place, if their child was born between September 1, 2014 and August 31, 2015.

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Applications were taken between October and January, and parents were advised to list three preferences.

All of those who applied in time for the deadline should receive an email from the council by 11.59pm today.

A letter will also be sent by second-class post and could take a few days to arrive.

The council has advised parents that its school admissions team will not be able to tell them their child's offer over the phone.

The authority's Pupil Place Plan, which maps out where school places are needed until 2022, states: "Primary school pupil numbers have been growing rapidly in Oxfordshire for several years, with the growth rate now starting to level off.

"It is thought the birth peak has now reached school age, and reception numbers are expected to fall again in 2018, before then starting to grow again as a result of large scale housing development planned for the county."

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It predicts that by 2022, primary pupil numbers in the county will have grown by 5.7 per cent compared to 2017.

Since 2010 the council has created more than 10,000 new primary school places.

About one fifth have been achieved by building new schools, but the majority have been achieved by expanding existing schools.

The national average for pupils offered their first-choice primary school has not yet been published, but last year the figure was 91 per cent.

Parents in Oxfordshire will have to accept of refuse their child's offer by 11.59pm on Friday, May 3. See oxfordshire.gov.uk for more details.