Confusion over school places after legal battle

A High Court clash over claims that a leading secondary school discriminated against working-class families forced Ealing Council to delay the admissions process by three weeks.

The council is now urgently writing to all parents of children in the final year of primary school to warn them of the change.

The row erupted after the popular Drayton Manor High School in Hanwell was accused of breaking the Government's new admissions rules.

The school has been praised by the Government for educational excellence and attracted 1,565 applications for just 240 places last year.

But Ealing Council claimed the school unfairly turned away disadvantaged children from nearby estates.

The schools adjudicator watchdog agreed with Ealing's complaint and ordered Drayton Manor to change its rules so more local children can attend.

In a rare legal challenge, the school is taking the matter to judicial review but the case will not be heard until Monday. The final cross-London deadline for secondary school applications for next year is midnight this Friday.

All boroughs are required to co-ordinate their admissions arrangements in an attempt to make the stressful process easier and fairer for parents.

But Ealing has been forced to extend its deadline for receiving applications for the borough's 13 secondary schools to 12 November.

However, parents in the borough will not be able to apply online after Friday's deadline expires for "technical reasons", Ealing said.

Instead, they must complete paper forms if they want to reconsider their options.

It is believed that about 3,500 families are potentially affected by the delay.

Last year, Drayton Manor alone accounted for nearly half of Ealing's online applications.

Katie Krais, a school admissions expert who advises families on applications, said: "This prolongs the agony and it will mean parents have to rethink their options. How incredibly disorganised."

The case is the most dramatic clash so far over the Government's new admissions rules since they were introduced last year. Under the code, councils are encouraged to report schools they believe are failing to promote fair admissions.

Ealing accused Drayton Manor of fuelling "social segregation" in the area by refusing places to children from deprived estates less than a mile away.

Many of those affected came from the deprived Cuckoo, Copley Close and High Lane estates. Adjudicator Andrew Baxter said the school "indirectly discriminated" against poor children.