Parents turning backs on old comps

Parents across the Black Country and Staffordshire are turning their backs on traditional comprehensives and opting for academies, grammars and faith schools, it was revealed today.

New figures show the region's top-performing schools are being inundated with thousands of applications every year, while many council-run schools are struggling to attract new pupils. In Wolverhampton, the city's girls' high school is the most popular, receiving an average of five bids for each place.

Sandwell Academy is receiving eight applications for each place a year and Queen Mary's High, in Upper Forster Street, Walsall, 8.1.

In Birmingham, voluntary-aided Muslim secondary Al Hijrah in Bordesley Green was the most popular with 18 applicants for each place.

Moorside High School in Stoke was the most popular in Staffordshire receiving an average of 1.3 applications for each place.

The figures suggest growing numbers of parents who cannot afford private schools are turning to alternatives which are run independently from the Local Education Authority (LEA), rather than council-run comprehensives.

City academies are state-funded but billed as independent schools run by private sponsors separately from the LEA.

The new figures also reveal which are the least popular schools in the region.

Pendeford Business & Enterprise College in Marsh Lane, Fordhouses, came off worst in Wolverhampton, with just 132 applicants for 151 places this year.

Nether Stowe High School proved the least appealing in Lichfield with only 89 prospective students for 170 places.

Sam Freedman, head of education at the Policy Exchange think tank, said: "It is clear that parents don't want bog standard schools run by the state and that if they cannot afford to go private, they are looking for schools run by non-state providers, be they faith, grammar or one of the acdemies."

The scramble for the best in education comes as parents agonise over school application forms, with the deadline looming this month.