Secondary school places joy for majority of Hackney children

Nine out of 10 children heading to secondary school in Hackney will go to one of their top three choices – but an email blunder left some parents in the dark.

The London Grid for Learning was tasked with delivering the news for the capital’s councils yesterday, but delays in the sending of emails left 27,000 of the 90,000 parents in London none the wiser.

In Hackney, 68 per cent of children will go to their preferred secondary school, while 91pc have received places at one of their top three choices.

The figures are in line with the London average of 89pc being offered one of their top three choices and 69 getting their favoured school.

The London Grid for Learning apologised for the error on its website and said all delays were resolved by 3.45pm on Wednesday.

It said: “Parents can find out their child’s secondary school offer straight away by logging on to the eAdmissions website. In addition, parents will have also received a text alert regarding their offer if they signed up for this service.

“Unfortunately, some email providers do not always allow email notifications about secondary school offers to be delivered straight away, due to their security and technical policies which don’t actually block the delivery of the email but send them out in stages / batches.

“We have informed parents of this development in advance by placing a message on the London eAdmissions website and we are sorry for any inconvenience caused.”