PARENTS desperate to keep all their children in the same primary school are being given a boost by Ealing Council.

Changes to the admission process – from September 2016 – prioritise the siblings of children already attending the school and remove the question of catchment areas.

Under current arrangements, a growing number of parents are unable to enrol their children at a sibling’s school due to high demand for places.

To ensure those without older siblings are not disadvantaged, catchments will be removed so that applications will be made purely on straight-line distance.

Cllr Binda Rai, cabinet member for children, said: “We received a good response to our consultation, which goes to show how passionately people care about this issue.

“It is always difficult to make changes to a system that affects so many people, but, on balance, I believe these updates will make the admissions system fairer for local families.”

In addition, the criteria of exceptional medical and social circumstances will be removed, although this will not affect applications from children with special needs.