Thousands of children will miss out on the primary school of their choice, with west London boroughs home to the most disappointment in the UK last year.

With the deadline for primary school applications looming this Friday (January 15), FindASchool and 192.com are urging parents to use their school-checking service and submit their applications by the deadline.

In 2015, there were more than 100 primary schools where you would not have got a place if you lived more than 300 metres from the school, with 38% of children in Kensington and Chelsea missing out on their first choice of school.

One school specified a cut-off distance of just 98 metres.

Admissions experts Ed Rushton and Dominic Blackburn, who launched the service, predict that due to the baby boom and a lack of available primary school places, these numbers will increase again this year.

Mr Rushton said: “It’s not just living too far from the school that sees parents missing out on a place - the complexity of the admissions system can also cause problems.

“We found a bewildering array of different approaches to allocating places at oversubscribed schools. These range from the very simple, through to the incomprehensibly complex.

If a school needs more than a page to explain how its places are going to be allocated, something has clearly gone wrong.”

'More stressful than moving home'

Harrow Council have warned parents to get their applications in as soon as possible, confirming that applications are up on last year - passing the 2,500 mark and still rising.

Mr Blackburn added: “A recent survey by OnePoll found that 66% of parents find the UK’s admissions system unnecessarily confusing and 57% say that the whole process of finding a school for their child is more stressful than moving home.

"We have designed this free service to help parents research the schools in their local area. Even if you have left it late and are only just starting the process, FindASchool is a great place to start, and will give you a good overview of the schools in your area and help you understand your chances of getting a place at these schools.”

FindASchool by 192.com is the first service to show successful applicant areas, enabling parents to see where they would have had to live in previous years to secure a place, in addition to a wealth of information on all of the schools in their area, including exam results, class sizes, Ofsted scores and the all-important admission criteria.

To find out more about schools in your area, click here.

West London schools in UK's 100 schools with shortest cut-off distance in 2015

Borough School name Admission year Cut off distances (in metres from school)
Kensington and Chelsea Fox Primary School 2014 98
Hammersmith and Fulham John Betts Primary School 2014 180
Kensington and Chelsea Thomas Jones Primary School 2014 233
Kensington and Chelsea Bousfield Primary School 2014 265