Pupils stranded in school places chaos

Hundreds of families have been caught up in chaos which has engulfed London's new secondary school admissions system.

A city-wide scheme introduced this year to make the process fairer and smoother has left many children without places, headteachers and parents said today.

Administrative errors have compounded problems with the computers needed to make the new system work.

Parents in some areas still got more than one offer from different authorities this year, while others got nothing.

Eight London boroughs are known to be experiencing problems with the system.

Joan Olivier, head of the heavily oversubscribed Lady Margaret School in Parsons Green, is furious after being deluged with phone calls from parents.

She said: "This was supposed to make things easier so kids knew where they were going and the process didn't drag on for months. But instead it's thrown up a mountain of problems.

"We've fielded about 75 calls from parents, several in tears, who haven't had any offers from the schools on their list, and have been offered places at schools that are known to be struggling. They're up in arms."

A Brixton parent, who asked not to be named, said half the children from Sudbourne Primary School have not been offered secondary places. She said: "They feel like total and utter failures."

Previously, local education authorities ran their own systems. Parents were able to make multiple applications for places at schools in different authorities. Because the boroughs did not co-operate, some families emerged with several offers while others had none.

This year, under the new Pan London Co-ordinated System, 40 local education authorities pooled information to match pupils with their highest preference.

Parents filled in a single form listing up to six secondary schools, sent it to their home authority and were supposed to get a single offer on 1 March. But problems with software have been compounded by human error in council offices. Ian Birnbaum, chairman of the Pan London Coordinated Admissions Executive Board, admitted he did not know how many children had been left without offers. But he insisted the new system had worked better than the old free-for-all.

"This wasn't some sort of grand experiment," he said. "This was a carefully thoughtout process where we knew that even if it wasn't perfect, it would be a great deal better."

Dr Birnbaum stressed that the new system could not prevent "administrative errors". He said: "Even if the system had worked perfectly, there would have still been parents who wouldn't have got an offer because there aren't enough places at popular schools."