MORE than 85 per cent of parents who appealed their child's school allocation last year were unsuccessful, official figures have revealed.

Reading Borough Council (RBC) received 173 appeals from parents who were not satisfied with the school their child was allocated in 2016.

Of the 173 appeals, the council only heard 114 of them and just 19 were upheld in the parents' favour.

All 19 were primary school places and zero of the 29 secondary school place appeals were successful.

An RBC spokesman said: "The completion of the Council’s £61 million primary school expansion programme earlier this year enabled the authority to offer every child a primary school place this September.

"Ninety one per cent of families were offered places at their first or second preference secondary schools.

"Of course, there are always going to be families who are disappointed and this is where the appeals process plays an important part.

"Of the 17 appeals upheld in Reading in 2016/17 only four were in schools which were already at the infant class size capacity and 13 places were granted at schools where there were no such restrictions on class size."