MORE Barnsley parents successfully challenged their child’s school place last year, new figures show.

Most appeals are made when an applicant has not received an offer of a place at their first preference school, but appeals relating to other transfers at the start of the school year are also included in the data.

New figures from the Department for Education show there were 191 admission appeals lodged relating to school entry in Barnsley this year.

Of these, 156 were heard, and 59 were successful, accounting for 38 per cent of those heard.

This was higher than a year earlier when 158 appeals were heard and 33 were successful, a success rate of 21 per cent.

The area was also above the 19 per cent of successful appeals across England.

Nationally, 7,498 of 38,639 appeals heard were approved - slightly down from the 20 per cent the year before.

In Barnsley, there were seven successful appeals lodged over primary school places, and 52 for secondary.

Nationally, 1,595 primary appeals were approved, representing 18 per cent of those heard.

For secondary places, 5,903 appeals were successful, 20 per cent of those heard.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said: “Nationally we are seeing a pupil population bulge moving through secondary and falling rolls in many areas for primary.

“This could mean that admissions appeals are lower as demand for primary places drops somewhat.

“However, there is quite a big regional variation in pupil numbers.

“This means that in some schools, demand for places can be very high - for example in areas with large amounts of new house building.”