'System still a mess despite all the money spent'

Joan Olivier, head of the heavily over-subscribed Lady Margaret School in Parsons Green, has had to field calls from around 75 parents who have had children rejected for a place.

She dealt with more than 700 applications for the 90 places available.

"I have been telling the Department for Education for months that this is the most ridiculous idea and I am completely fed up with the way things have turned out," she said.

"Parents want the very best for their children and I have no problem with that. But it should have been obvious to everyone this system would not work.

"In the old system middle class parents cherry-picked schools around London leaving those who didn't behave like that to feed off the scraps. It was a mess but it got sorted out in the end.

"Now parents are still trying to get their children into the best schools, it is still a mess and nothing much has changed despite all the money which has been spent.

"It should have been obvious to anybody that parents told to pick six possible schools for their children would choose four really good ones and a couple of insurance ones at the bottom of their list.

"Naturally they hoped that if they didn't get their first choice they would drop down to their second choice but it hasn't happened like that.

"First-choice schools are hugely over-subscribed but when the application gets passed on to their second third and forth choices they are already filled up with children who made them their first choice.

"Instead of dropping down one level, parents are finding their child left with a school right at the bottom of their list, if they get a place at all.

"It is a complete hash up."