Nine out of ten pupils starting secondary school in Oxfordshire in September have been allocated their first choice of school.

Parents yesterday received letters indicating which school their youngsters would go to.

Oxfordshire County Council said 90 per cent of the 6,158 children due to start secondary school got their first choice.

But three per cent of Oxfordshire 11-year-olds - 191 in total - will not be going to their first, second or third choice of school, with 440 children being allocated their second or third choice.

Georgina Riley, of Christmas Common, is one of 88 school starters who will be going to her parents' third choice school.

Her dad Ian said they had hoped she would be accepted at Gillotts School, in Henley-on-Thames, but she was allocated a place at Icknield Community College, Watlington.

Mr Riley said: "She is the only child in her school, Nettlebed Primary, going to Icknield so she is losing all her friends and being separated from the people she grew up with, which for an 11-year-old is devastating.

"Gillotts is a specialist maths and IT school and she is good at maths, so it was a better fit educationally too. She was in tears."

Last year 92 per cent of county pupils got their first choice school. The percentage for this year and last is higher than the national figure of 79 per cent.

Has your child failed to get in the school you wanted? Call our reporter Fran Bardsley on 01865 425427.