Today (April 16th) is the first National Offer Day. It is the day that parents all across the country find out whether their children have been allocated their preferred primary school place.

This first co-ordinated sorting of primary school places will see emails and letters sent out with details of where children will be starting school in September and it is part of a series of measures to address a possible shortage of primary school places that has been instigated by a fast-rising birth rate.

Between 2012 and 2013, pupil numbers grew by almost 100,000 and councils are calling for more powers to create new primary school teaching jobs to help alleviate some of the pressure.

Before National Offer Day, the Department for Education published scorecards which outlined how all the country's local authorities were meeting coping with the increased demand for primary school places.

They show that last summer councils had "firm plans" for an extra 300,000 places, which would mean a further 57,000 would be needed to meet the expected demand in autumn 2015. However, the scorecards also show how dramatically pupil numbers have risen in some inner city areas - an issue that is only going to get worse before it gets better.

There may need to be a huge increase in the number of Darryl Mydat