GRAMMAR schools in High Wycombe are struggling to fill their year seven places because the number of students in the town is on the slide.

The Royal Grammar School, John Hampden Grammar School and Wycombe High School all have empty spaces because the numbers of children of school age is decreasing.

At the Royal Grammar School in Amersham Road, High Wycombe, there is room for 192 boys - but only 180 have joined the school this year.

Roy Page, pictured left, headmaster at the RGS, said: "In previous years we have been oversubscribed. This year it would appear there are not as many boys to fill the places in this part of the county."

The school catchment area covers High Wycombe and stretches to Stokenchurch and Beaconsfield along the M40.

All boys who put down the RGS as their first choice and passed the 11 plus exam, including those from outside the catchment area, have joined the school, but this has still left empty spaces.

The same situation has occurred at John Hampden Grammar School in Marlow Hill, High Wycombe, where the school is 20 places down on capacity.

Stephen Noakes, head-master, pictured right, said: "Four years ago we increased our intake from 120 to 150 because of an increase in demand and we have tried to maintain that. But this year we are short. I think the population is slightly on the decline in the younger generations."

Jane Wainwright, pictured centre, headteacher at Wycombe High School where there are also 12 empty spaces, said: "The number of children in the age group is going down year on year. We tend to find that if we start year seven with places available they do fill up over the next two years.

"We actually have a long waiting list for our older year groups."

Places for grammar schools are allocated after parents apply to Buckinghamshire County Council, except in the case of the RGS which is a foundation school and has its own admissions policy.

Parents have been alerted to the possibility of moving their child to the RGS, although anyone wanting to go to John Hampden or Wycombe High would now have to apply through the council for entry next year.

The council has said admission arrangements have been fixed for the next two years, but they will be reviewed in that period.

The council also said there were no plans to change catchment areas.

Debbie Munday, senior admissions coordinator at the council, said: "We are aware of this issue. We are always monitoring the number of year seven places available and the number of appli-cations, but we also have to consider changing demographics in the region and shifting population. It's sometimes difficult to manage all these changing factors, it's a case of fine tuning and reviewing th-ings every year to make sure as many children as possible go to their school of choice."