PARENTS are turning their backs on two of Pendle's six high schools, leaving one with just 67% of its Year Seven places filled.

Only 105 of the 165 available places in the intake year at West Craven High Technology College, Barnoldswick, have been filled, and 18 of those are pupils whose parents had not picked the school as their first choice.

At Primet High School, Colne, just 76% of its first year places are taken up, with 46 left available.

But Park High School, Colne, had 191 people picking it as their top preference and competing for its 186 places in Year 7 this September, making it the most popular school in the borough.

Fisher-More RC High School is the only other which is fully subscribed, with only eight pupils in its Year 7 who did not single it out as their first choice.

Nelson's two new schools under the Building Schools for the Future project, Pendle Vale College and Marsden Heights Community College, are 10% below capacity in Year 7.

Parents of children in Year 6 are asked to list their top three secondary school choices on a form, and Lancashire County Council tries to give every pupil their top preference.

Headteacher at West Craven Arnold Kuchartschuk said he was "not pressing the panic button" yet despite the fall in pupils. He said numbers across Barnoldswick and Earby's primary schools had dropped, and that this had passed on to the school.

He said: "If our GCSE results were falling then we would be saying there was something to worry about, but they are the highest we've ever had.

"We do have a lower intake than Park, but their catchment area draws on pupils that we would not, and it may happen that in a couple of years' time their primary schools will have lower numbers and they will find their intakes dropping too."

But Janet Walsh, Primet's headteacher, said the figures were "disconcerting", and urged parents to see the school for themselves.

She said: "I consider that year groups this size are almost an ideal for this school, but one has to look at the future. We are fairly confident that we will improve on our numbers. It is a little disconcerting, though.

"Many ase their views on what Primet has been like in the past. It's a shame that more people don't come and have a look."