A Facebook group has been set up by desperate parents whose children may have to be home-schooled after learning their first choice school will not be opening for another year.

Ealing Fields High School will not open in September as planned, as negotiations over the preferred site could not be completed in time.

The Department for Education (DfE) has now deferred the free school’s opening until September 2016.

However, many of the parents who made Ealing Fields their first choice have now been offered schools outside of their area despite there being four suitable schools within four miles of where they live.

Parents from South Ealing have not been offered any of the six schools they listed as their top choices.

As a result, parents have declined offers of school such as Villiers High School, in Southall, and are preparing to home-school their children.

Mother Samantha O’Neill, of Radbourne Avenue set up a Facebook group called Ealing Parents Fighting For Fair School Placements, which now has over 70 members, after her son ended up without a school place for September.

She said: “It’s a shambles. I listed six preferences for schools near to my house and I haven’t been offered one of them.

"Instead I have been offered a place at Villiers High School for my son but it’s nowhere near my house. I am not allowing my son to travel on two buses to an area he doesn’t know, to a school where none of his friends are. It’s just not suitable.

"I am going to have to think about leaving my job and home-schooling my son.

“Myself and many others have declined our offers and are now left without secondary school places for our children to start in September. This is no surprise. We could all see this coming as it was a battle to get my son into a reception class at his local school.”

Marianne McBrearty, 37, of Weymouth Avenue, said: “My son Theo is profoundly unilaterally deaf and all the schools I listed as my preferences were chosen due to their suitability for his condition. Villiers is not suitable for him. I haven’t been offered any schools on my list.

“Leaving 120 children without their first-choice school then offering them schools outside of their catchment area at the very last minute is totally unacceptable. Then we have David Cameron pledging more free schools. It’s too little too late. He’s ignoring the crisis in Ealing.”

Councillor Binda Rai, cabinet member for children and young people, said: “This can be a stressful time and news of Ealing Field’s deferral is disappointing.

“We have approximately 200 Year 7 high school vacancies in the borough and everyone has been offered a place.

“We always advise parents to list more than one school and to include a school near to where they live. Our records show that if any local Ealing Fields parents had included Acton High as a preference they would have been offered a place.

“We strongly advise parents to accept their offer and ask to go on the waiting list of their preferred school.

“Villiers High School is a good school with high-quality teaching and leadership and I encourage parents to arrange a visit.”