PARENTS who have failed to get their children into their desired secondary school have joined forces and formed an action group to fight their case.

This year 19 children from Trafalgar School in Twickenham and 26 from Stanley School in Teddington have not been offered any of their preferred schools, a greater number than in previous years.

A parent from the Trafalgar School Year 6 action group said: "We feel cheated, we're supposed to have a choice but we haven't had any choice."

Twickenham MP Vincent Cable has taken up their case.

He said: "It is simply a matter of logic that when some schools are perceived to be better than others, not everyone will achieve their preferred choice. But what makes people angry is the illusion of choice: being told that there is a choice when there isn't.

"Parents at Stanley Junior were told that if they applied to Teddington, their link school, they would be admitted. Then they discovered that there were not places. The position is particularly bad in Hampton where parents of boys have virtually no chance of being admitted to Teddington, nor girls at Waldegrave, but every year they have to go through the charade of application, rejection and appeal.

"The council will have to decide whether it wants parental choice or not. If it does, there will have to be greater flexibility in opening up new classes in popular schools. If it doesn't, it will need to be more honest with parents that they should expect to be allocated the neighbourhood school and plan their lives accordingly."

A spokesman for Richmond upon Thames Council said that Teddington School had become a victim of its own success' and has become increasingly oversubscribed.

He said: "This year in particular we have been unable to admit all of the children who have tried to get places there."

But he emphasised that all pupils who had been unsuccessful in their first choice had been offered a place in an alternative borough school and that parents could appeal.

"The council are spending £920,000 on additional school places this year. We also need to remember that 40 per cent of pupils in the schools come from outside the borough, which the government does not recognise with extra resources."