More children in Newham will be starting at one of their top three primary schools in September than anywhere else in London.

Figures released on Friday show that 98 per cent of families received a place for their child at one of their top three choices while 89.21 per cent got their first preference.

A total of 94 children did not accept the borough’s offer and the council said they have been placed in schools less than 1.6.miles from their homes.

Newham received 4,515 applications for primary school places and, for the first time, 1,531 of those were made online.

When asked how the borough achieved the results, Cllr Quintin Peppiatt, executive member for children and young people, said: “This is down to a lot of hard work by our schools, headteachers, parents, and carers.

“We have added permanent places through completed construction projects which became available from the start of the new school term last year.

“We did this with investment of more than £50m to both expand and improve facilities at schools.”

The statistics were released by the Pan London Admissions Board which co-ordinates school applications.