A SIXTH of Surrey youngsters have missed out on a place at their chosen primary school.
When school places were announced last Wednesday, 85 per cent of Reception-age pupils in the county were given a spot at their first choice school.
But this leaves one in six children out of luck and while 94 per cent got a place at one of their three choices, the other 6 per cent face long trips to get to schools in different towns.
Furious parents have lambasted Surrey County Council for failing to provide enough school places to keep up with the rate of house building.
Kirsty Allen's family have lived in Horley for more than 100 years in the same farm house, and five generations have gone to school in the town.
But now her four-year-old daughter Elsa has been refused a Reception place at all three of her chosen schools: Horley, Langshott and Meath Green infant schools.
Instead she faces a six-mile round trip every day to a school in Smallfield, even though Langshott Infant School is less than a mile from the family home.
Mrs Allen said: "It is appalling. We are a one-car family, as the government are asking us to be, and I don't think it's acceptable for a four-year-old child to have to get three miles to school."
She added: "The councils are building thousands of homes and we just haven't got the school places. It is disgusting; I am furious and disgusted with the county council."
Mrs Allen claims other parents at Horley's Bobtails Nursery, which Elsa currently attends, have similar problems, with one mother facing the challenge of getting two children to schools in different towns without a car.
On the Surrey Mirror's Facebook, Tessa Holme said her youngster had been given a Reception place at a school more than half an hour away from where she has another child in Year 3.
She said: "It [this year's admissions] seems to have been an absolute shambles."
Surrey County Council spokeswoman Joy Ridley said: "We appreciate how disappointed parents are when they do not get what they want, but it is possible that they may do so eventually.
"Generally parents are put on their preferred schools' waiting lists and places become available as other parents decline offers. They can also appeal against the decision."
Surrey County Council's education chief, Councillor Linda Kemeny, credited a big expansion project with ensuring 94 per cent of children got one of their three choices.
A new 30-place primary school will open in Horley in September and Lime Tree Primary School opened in Reigate in September in an attempt to ease the pressure on school places.
