Sixteen families have been told their children will get a place at their local school – after being told the reception class was full.

In March, parents in Wolvercote protested when it emerged that the reception class at the village primary school in First Turn was full, with 30 pupils.

That left 16 families facing a drive to other schools, including North Kidlington Primary about four miles away.

But now education officers and teaching staff have put forward proposals which will mean all the affected pupils can attend the Wolvercote school.

Louise Mendonca, a spokesman for the county council’s education department, said: “It is the council's intention to provide sufficient places to meet current demand from within the Wolvercote catchment area.

“The letters formally offering places at Wolvercote Primary School will be despatched on May 4.”

Headteacher Anna Ballance said: “A solution has been found, and parents will be very happy because this was an extraordinary situation.

“The school has worked very closely with the education authority to come up with a solution so that children from the village can go to the school.

“Next year, if the priority in the catchment area is changed, this should not happen to the same degree.”

But she warned: “There will be admissions pressures in North Oxford next year, simply because there are so many children in this age group now in the area. There will inevitably be staffing pressures and if the same situation happened again next year we could not do the same thing again.”

Ms Ballance said the precise way in which the extra pupils would be accommodated was being decided at meeting with governors last night.

Katie Keeble, 43, who runs the Post Box village store in Godstow Road, and wants her son William, three, to attend the school in September, said: “The education officer Roy Leech has been fantastic trying to get everything sorted out and has kept us very well informed.

“We got a letter after Easter saying the council was trying to sort the finances out, and would let parents know formally at the beginning of May.

“Things are looking very favourable and we are now very hopeful that all the children affected will be able to go to the school.”

In total, 44 pupils were refused a place for the reception year at Wolvercote Primary School.

Of those, 25 had chosen the school as their first preference, including the 16 from the school catchment area.

There are 220 pupils at the school, including the nursery, and there are 30 places per year group.

A spokesman for the county council added that the appeals process was “ongoing”.

In the last school year there were 402 appeals. It is not yet known how many there are concerning places for the September intake.