'The more you have in a class, the harder the teacher's job is'

Liz Green is concerned that her three-year-old daughter, Poppy, will miss out on a place at a local primary school next year.

In the London borough of Kingston upon Thames, at least 10 of the 34 primary schools will have temporary classrooms by September.

Without them, they would not be able to squeeze in all the children aged four and five in the area, says Green, an MP's assistant and Liberal Democrat councillor.

She says her part of the borough, Surbiton, needs at least one new primary school: "Temporary classrooms are not sustainable: we need permanent ones."

Next month the borough will publish its long-term strategy on tackling the problem. Two years ago, she says, the number of children who applied to go to primary school outstripped the number of places. Some of her friends say their children were in classes with more than 40 pupils.

"That worries me," Green says. "The more you have in a class, the harder the teacher's job is. It would be better to have an extra form."

Green, 39, is thinking not just of Poppy, who should be going to school in September next year, but also of Martha, who is one.

"We're equidistant from two good primary schools, which are half a mile to a mile away. I wouldn't want them to go to a school further away than that. You are looking at buses and cars then. I want to walk them to the school gates, as my mother did for me. It's about being part of the community."

It would be easier out of London, where competition for places is less fierce.

But Green is adamant that she will stay in Surbiton: "I don't think it will end up being a problem."

Green has heard that one year, one of her preferred primary schools chose half of its pupils not because of the distance they lived from the school, but because they had siblings there. "There's nothing you can do about that, I suppose."