Children applying for places in the English Schools Foundation's 10 primary schools so far are down on last year after it closed its first round of applications.
The ESF's head office received 1,400 applications for 1,080 places. Schools will offer according to its new order of priority which puts English-speaking children who cannot be educated in local schools at the top of the list. Last year it received 2,000 applications over six to seven months.
Chris Forse, acting assistant chief executive, said: 'Clearly the numbers are lower. But this is only to be expected because last year was a boom year because of the Year of the Dragon births.' As children start Year One in the ESF at age five, these schools were affected by the dragon year a year earlier than local schools, where children start at six.
The conflict over teachers' remuneration had not put parents off as most applications had been received before the pay proposals were released, he said.
Parents will be informed by the end of next month whether their children will be interviewed or not.
