Northern Ireland's new education minister Michelle McIlveen has pledged to do all she can to ensure that every child caught up in a row over the post-primary transfer process gets a place in school.
On her first official engagement, the DUP minister visited a North Belfast primary school to present an award for excellence in pastoral care.
But Ms McIlveen already has to deal with a controversy after a number of parents hit out because their children did not receive a place at secondary school, or in the school they wanted.
More than 23,000 P7 children across Northern Ireland were told on Saturday which school they have secured a place in.
The Education Authority said more than 98% of children have been placed in a school of their choice, with almost 85% securing a place at their first preference school.
For the first time in decades, grammar schools did not use transfer tests to decide which pupils to admit this year after the Covid-19 pandemic forced the cancellation of the assessments.
Around 280 children were not placed in any school, and some parents hit out stating that they had been failed by the transfer process.
Ms McIlveen said around 129 of those children had been placed from Monday and said she would be working to resolve the other cases.
She told the PA news agency: "This is a really stressful time for parents and for pupils.
"There is expectation and excitement about what's to come in September, and I appreciate that so many of them are dreadfully disappointed as a consequence of last weekend's information that came through to them.
"We have been working really hard with EA (Education Authority) colleagues and also with schools and, quite good news in that we have placed 129 pupils as from yesterday.
"Obviously that work is going to continue over the next number of days and probably the next few weeks as the numbers start to dwindle down."
She added: "In line with that there are a number of pupils who have maybe been allocated spaces in schools where they are not particularly happy, so there will be some movement around that as well.
"So, we are working very closely with schools in order to alleviate and create mitigations that will reduce that further."
Ms McIlveen said there had been very different circumstances around transfer this year because the Covid pandemic had forced the cancellation of transfer tests, which would usually determine admission to grammar schools.
She said: "I suppose this was a very different situation than we would normally have had, it is not the ideal situation, very last minute changes had to be made to the criteria in order to facilitate enrolment for this year.
"And while it is not perfect and adjustments will have to be made I think we are doing the best that we can in order to ensure that every child has a place in school."
Ms McIlveen was visiting Ballysillan Primary in Belfast, presenting a Derrytrasna Pastoral Care Award.
The school was given funding of £3,200 from the Department of Education, which has been used to source nurture resources for all classes from nursery to P7, creating Nurture Nooks in each class, and providing training for all staff.
The minister said her immediate focus in the post would be on recovery and the mental health and well-being of pupils in Northern Ireland.
