CHILDREN are more likely to be offered a place at one of their top three chosen high schools under a new allocation system introduced by Bury education chiefs.

The co-ordinated admission scheme does not become compulsory until 2005, but Bury has voluntarily adopted it a year early.

Harold Williams, Bury's director of education, said: "We know from problems in the past with over-subscribed schools that it is better to do this now. The new arrangement will result in improvements in the process and greater satisfaction for parents."

Under the old system, parents were encouraged to rank their three choices for a place at a community high school in order of preference. This meant that if a place could not be found at their first choice school, their second and third choices may already have been filled by other parents who had chosen them as their first preference.

But the new scheme means that all preferences for community schools will now be treated equally.

In cases where there are more preferences than places available at a particular school, priority will be ranked according to whether the child is in public care, whether they live in the catchment area and if they already have siblings at the school.

If there is still an over-subscription in any category, places will be offered using the shortest available reasonable walking distance from home to school as a "tiebreaker".

Preference forms will be sent to parents this month and they must be completed and returned by October 24. The three choices can include a school in another authority or a denominational school in Bury, and so must still be listed in order of preference. Notification of offers will be sent out on March 1.

Parents have been warned against stating the same school more than once or only naming one school on the form as this will not increase the chance of securing a place there.

The LEA says it cannot automatically offer or guarantee a place at a catchment area school. If parents do not name a catchment area school as a preference and are unsuccessful in getting a place at one of their three preferred schools, they could find the schools closest to their homes have been filled by children who did express it as a preference.

As a result their child could end up going to a school that is not close to their home.

Admissions to the borough's denominational schools are decided by the schools' governing bodies, which have their own criteria. For instance, at St Gabriel's RC High priority is given to Roman Catholic pupils living in local parishes, whereas St Monica's RC High's main consideration is that potential pupils name it as their first preference.

Bury CE High School's main consideration is the frequency, regularity and duration of a child's worship at an Anglican or Christian church.