Almost nine out of 10 children applying for secondary school places have been offered their first-choice school, but the proportion has dropped since last year.

And some parents were left in the dark over what schools their children had been allocated to after Oxfordshire County Council's website experienced problems yesterday morning.

It meant parents could not access the online portal and did not receive emails, although letters were sent out as planned.

The local authority apologised for the problem and said  88.7 per cent of pupils had received their first-preference offer, with just 3.2 per cent of applicants offered a place at a school that was not one of their stated preferences.

This was down from 92.13 per cent offered first places last year, although the number of children applying rose by 85 this year to 6,619.

County council cabinet member for education Steve Harrod said: "Once again we have been able to give the vast majority of families the news they were hoping to receive.

"Unfortunately, there are always circumstances where applications for particular schools exceed available spaces, and we can’t offer everyone a place.

"An appeal process is available to families wishing to challenge the outcome of their application, and details of how to do this have been sent to parents."

Anyone who has yet to apply for a secondary school place for their child in September 2017 should print out and complete an application form from the county council's website and submit it to the authority's admissions team as soon as possible.