Many parents of reception age children across Cornwall have today received the good news that their child has been allocated a place at their first preference school.

Across the county 93 per cent of children have been given a place at their first-choice school, and 98 per cent of applicants have been offered a place at a school they named as one of three preferences.

Cornwall Council received 5,802 applications for places, and 5,416 of those have been offered a place at their first choice.

This comes after the council began a £40m investment programme which is already providing additional places where they are needed most.

Jane Black, the council's service director for education and early years, said: "We are pleased that so many children and families have received the news they wanted on national offer day.

“As reflected nationally we are seeing increasing pressure on primary school places in Cornwall, so these figures are a testament to the work that goes in to planning and allocating places and the support from our schools.”

Cornwall has 227 schools with reception classes and this year 92 of these schools are full after the first round of allocations compared to 104 at this time last year.

But this number is expected to increase as late applications for places are processed over the next few weeks.

The number of parents and carers applying late is described as a concern for the council, as it reduces the chance of getting a preferred school.

The school admissions team, in partnership with the family information service, works hard each year to get the message out to families through various routes such as social media, but despite this the council has still received over 100 late applications so far this year.

Among the areas in Cornwall which are experiencing particular pressure on reception places for this September are Bodmin, Redruth, Helston, Wadebridge and Saltash, with some towns full to capacity.

To aid this problem, the council has undertaken the investment programme which will see almost 2,500 more places available in the areas where they are needed most.

Sharon Hindley, the council's head of education access and sufficiency, said: "The council has been working closely with schools in pupil place pressure areas in Cornwall to identify the best solution for expansion.

“We are very appreciative of the support offered by our schools to meet the continuing demand for places.”

Completed projects include providing an extra 30 places at Connor Downs Academy and Weeth Community Primary School, 60 additional places at Cubert Primary School and 20 additional places Trevithick Learning Academy ARB.

The Government also announced last week that three of Cornwall's local multi-academy trusts have been successful in their bid to open primary free schools in Newquay, St Austell and Launceston.

The council's pupil place planning team worked with each of the trusts in support of their bid as the schools, when opened, will provide much needed additional primary school places in the future.