A SCHOOL places 'black hole' in Marston has been blamed for leaving some children with a dangerous commute to school.

Parents have called for action after more than a third of children were not given their first preference secondary school choice this year.

In Marston, only 62 per cent got first choice offers compared to an average of 89 per cent across Oxfordshire.

Families say the lack of a catchment school, as well as the ongoing uncertainty over the delayed new Swan School planned for Marston, has left their children scattered across different schools, with some children offered places at a faith school against their wishes.

Deborah Foy's daughter Isobel, who is in year six at St Michael's CE Primary School, did not get an offer for The Cherwell School – her first choice – despite living about one mile away.

Ms Foy said: "We are paying a premium to live in the Cherwell catchment area but we still missed out.

"Isobel got offered a place at Cheney School but none of her friends are going there.

"It is appalling. It feels like Marston does not have a catchment school anymore.

"Marston seems to be completely left out."

The rate of pupils offered a first place school in Marston was the second-lowest in the county, after University Parks ward in Oxford where just five children applied to state secondaries.

Naomi Winnifrith's son Zachary also attend's St Michael's but will attend Cheney School in Headington after not getting into The Cherwell School.

She said: "Marston, or at least a particular area of Marston, has been overlooked.

"We do not have a cohort school. We are a close-knit community and the idea of the kids being able to move up together is being ruined.

"It is very frustrating and it is a mess.

"Some children have been offered St Greg's but it is just too far away, it is two buses or a dangerous cycle ride."

Ms Winnifrith added that pressure on schools in the Marston area had been increased by delays to the Swan School.

The school was meant to open in September but has twice been delayed and now has a provisional opening date of September 2019.

It is proposed to operate from the Harlow Centre in Old Marston.

Oxford city councillor for Marston Mary Clarkson said it was inappropriate that some children were offered places at St Gregory the Great despite not being Catholic and not wanting to attend a faith school.

She said: "I am now finding myself in the situation where I am supporting Marston parents who are atheists and do not want to send their children to a Catholic school.

"They have every right to do that, just as Catholic parents have the right to send their kids to a faith school.

“The journey to an alternative school is not easy. I think it is two buses or not a very safe cycle.

"Marston is the area with a real sense of community and that is why it is so upsetting at school level it all seems to fall apart."

Oxfordshire County Council spokesman Owen Morton said: "The main reason for the lower percentage figure for first-preference offers is the popularity of the Cherwell school, which was again hugely oversubscribed with first preference applications for September 2017.

"The council has offered the Harlow Centre site for the planned Swan School precisely to address demand for school places in the Marston area, and should the school be delivered at this location, we would expect this to have an immediate positive effect on the percentage of families securing first-preference school places for their children."