Pupils are given places at top school, then told it's a mistake

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St Thomas More Catholic Comprehensive in Eltham warned parents they may have been wrongly told their children had won places for September after "an administrative error".

The school - one of the best state comprehensives in Greenwich - was forced to apologise and delay the confirmation of offers while staff checked the details.

Parents expressed alarm that the good news they were celebrating yesterday could have been false.

One concerned parent told the Standard: "We received a letter in the morning saying my son was in, and then a few hours later we got another one explaining that there had been a mistake and that we had to wait until Friday to see if we really had got into St Thomas More.

"At my son's primary school, St Mary's, they took all the children into an assembly and told them that there had been a problem with the letters.

"It's such a shame because every parent who was sent a letter will be thinking that it's their child who is one of the ones who will get in. The ones who don't get in will be devastated." The school takes about 120 pupils each year and gives priority to children from Catholic backgrounds.

Head teacher Markus Ryan said he was working with the council to make sure the correct offers of places are made to parents.

He said: "I apologise for any stress this may cause, but I am taking the precaution of notifying all parents or carers as I believe there has been an error.

"It is possible that a small number of students have been offered a place at the school in error.

"We are working with Greenwich to clarify the position and will be writing to all families as soon as possible, once I am sure that the correct offers have been made."

He said parents should not contact the school. "We will be writing to all families as soon as we have any information," he said.

The mistake comes at a particularly stressful time for thousands of parents across London.

More than 26,000 children missed out on a place at their first choice secondary school in September.

Nearly 5,000 were left without any state secondary school place in London and will pay to go to private school, travel farther for a state school or remain at home for their education.