Newham has topped the table for primary school places today with the highest number of pupils receiving their first choice of school of all London boroughs.

Figures from lobby group London Councils show that 90.76 per cent of pupils were offered their first choice primary school by Newham Council.

This is ten percentage points above the London average of 80.74pc, and up from the previous year when 89.21pc were offered first choices.

Newham Council also offered 97.89 of pupils a place at one of their top three primary schools - more than five per cent above the 92pc average across London.

The figures also show that 99pc of Newham pupils have places at one of their top six choicescompared to the London average of 95pc.

Only 1.34 per cent of pupils were not offered a place at any of their preferred schools, and these pupils were given alternative places at the closest school to their home that had places available.

Most of these were half-a-mile or less from their home.

A council spokeswoman said: “Newham Council received almost 5,000 applications for primary school places.

“Through the hard work of parents, schools and the council, we’ve been able to ensure that more of the borough’s children can attend the school of their choice.”

She added: “We’ve also invested in a pupil expansion programme to expand overly subscribed schools and create new schools.

“This has enabled us to continue to provide an excellent learning environment with high quality teaching, meet the growing demand for school places, and ensure every Newham child has place in one of our outstanding primary schools.”

There were 4,696 applications for places by the closing date of January 15, of which 1,955 were made online and 2,741 were paper applications.