Children in a Norfolk town could have to be educated in a different county because their local school is running out of places.
Norfolk County Council bosses are talking to their counterparts in Cambridgeshire to try to arrange for some youngsters to go to school over the border.
The council is struggling to ensure secondary school age children in Downham Market can go to their local school - one of the biggest in the county - after they turn 11.
And with hundreds more homes due to be built in the area in the years ahead, officials and councillors are wrestling with the issue.
Andrew Jamieson, deputy leader of Norfolk County Council, said: "The situation currently is that there are more than 300 families who have put Downham Market Academy down as their first preference.
"But the published admissions number for Year 7 pupils at the school is 240. We have been talking to the academy and there has been agreement to increase that number to 270.
"That means there are going to be local families who are not placed. We have been talking to colleagues in Cambridgeshire, but we know they are experiencing high demand of their own."
READ MORE: Norfolk County Council to change school place process
Mr Jamieson said a new academy had been due to open in Cambridgeshire last year, which could have eased pressure, but it has been delayed.
The 1,500-pupil Downham Market Academy, based in Bexwell Road, is due to have an extension built in 2025.
But Mr Jamieson said it is going to be a "tight fit" to ensure children can go to their local school in the meantime.
Mr Jamieson said: "I believe it is going to be a tight fit, but I am confident that the team at County Hall are doing all they can.
"It is an area we are really focussed on because we know, with the forthcoming West Winch development, that there are going to be hundreds of new homes in that area."
Pressure for places at Downham Market Academy has increased after a turnaround in the school's performance.
In 2017, the school was put into special measures by watchdog Ofsted after it was given an inadequate rating.
It was then taken over by the Cambridgeshire Educational Trust and, in 2022, after inspectors carried out a new inspection, it was graded good.
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