GLITCH-FREE technology has helped the council avoid a school admissions fiasco.

Every one of the 3,387 children in Bromley who applied for a place at a local authority maintained secondary school has been sent an offer.

This is the second year of the co-ordinated admissions scheme but it was not so successful last year.

Thirty girls from Orpington did not have a secondary school place by the deadline for parents to accept or reject offers.

This was due to problems with computer software which meant the final stages of the exchange of information with neighbouring authorities had to be completed manually.

Executive councillor for children and young people Graham Arthur said: "Everything worked as it should this year and all pupils who applied by the closing date of October 21 last year were sent an offer on the same day.

"This is tremendous and demonstrates how much fairer this system is."

Parents now have until next Wednesday to accept or reject their offer.

Local authorities will then hold a second round of co-ordination, which includes all those who applied after the October deadline, to allocate the remaining places.

Under the co-ordinated admissions system parents listed their first to sixth choice of school on a form which was sent to Bromley Council.

The schools then decided whether to give a child a place and the council posted all offers first class on March 1.

Eighty-three per cent of this year's applicants have received an offer at either their first or second choice school.

So far 5.4 per cent of pupils have been offered their nearest appropriate school as they did not get a place from the schools on their list.

Before the co-ordinated system, parents applied directly to schools.

In April 2004, 10 per cent of pupils had not received an offer by the deadline to reject or accept the offer.

In April 2003 13 per cent of pupils had not received an offer and in April 2002 this figure was 15 per cent.