THE Academies programme could leave Oxfordshire County Council unable to provide extra school places where they are most needed, it has been claimed.

The county has a serious shortages of primary school places, with pinchpoints in Oxford and Abingdon seeing hundreds of children failing to get a place at any of their preferred schools.

Now it has emerged that the problem could get worse as more schools convert to academies.

Academies have control over admissions policy and the power to refuse if asked to take on extra pupils by local education authorities. Currently the county council has the power to force schools to take extra pupils.

Parents, councillors and the National Union of Teachers have all expressed concern that a bad situation could get worse.

Mother Hailey Munt is considering moving from Cowley to Wheatley after her son, Charlie Berry, was refused a space at the three primary schools nearest their home.

She said: “It really is quite scary.He has a younger sister – if I end up moving to Wheatley and he goes to school there, what happens when I am applying for a place for her l Continued from Page 1 to go to school and she doesn’t get in?”

Donna Merritt’s son Harry was not offered a place at any of the three primary schools she had nominated in Abingdon.

She said: “There are more children than there are school places in Abingdon already. It does worry me, because the more schools that become academies, the less places there are likely to be in the future.”

Primary schools which have expanded in the past two years include Cutteslowe, Rose Hill, and Wolvercote, while St Ebbe’s, Eynsham and Orchard Meadow are also set to take additional pupils.

Figures released to the Oxford Mail show that in 2010, almost 1,000 out of 7,736 children of primary school age did not get their first choice school.

The problem has been caused by an increase in the number of young children in and around Oxford, following new housing developments, more families moving to the city and a rising birth rate.

Gawain Little, secretary of the Oxfordshire branch of the NUT, said: “In Oxfordshire one of the major issues is the number of primary places. Parents probably care more about that than anything else.”

Referring to academies, he said: “The local authority loses the ability to instruct schools to take extra places but what they have done in recent years is negotiated how they could expand in the interest of schools and communities.

“Elsewhere, academies have said they will take more pupils, but on their own terms.”

Melinda Tilley, the county council’s cabinet member for education, said the issue was raised at a recent seminar about academies she attended in London but initial signs indicated schools would co-operate.

She said: “They said we could end up with feral children around the place that nobody wants, which is the worst case scenario.

“When we need places, we look at schools, then we contact them and see if expansion is possible and get the agreement of headteachers and governors.

“You can’t do it without agreement and come in with hobnail boots – you need to take people willingly. We’re optimistic this will continue.”

Rush Common Primary School, in Abingdon, was the first primary to become an academy in the county.

Headteacher Maxine Evans said that irrespective of academy status, it did not have space to expand.

She said: “We’re working very closely with the local authority, as we always have done.”

She said the admissions policy could be tweaked to make it easier for siblings to get places at the same school.

She added: “It’s about keeping families together.”