Wandsworth is a “victim of its own success” the council has said, as figures reveal more than half of schoolchildren did not get their preferred secondary school choice this year.

As children and parents anxiously wait to hear what school they will be going to in September. figures revealed just 49 per cent of Wandsworth applicants got their first choice, compared with an average of 66 per cent across the capital.

A council spokesman said: “The borough is the victim of its own success because it runs good schools with some of the best exam results in south London. This means they are hugely in demand from parents not just in Wandsworth but also in neighbouring boroughs like Lambeth.

“This means they are hugely in demand from parents not just in Wandsworth but also in neighbouring boroughs like Lambeth.

He said a 4 per cent increase in the number of applications put pressure on the system, but added 85 per cent of parents were offered one their top three choices, in line with the rest of London.

Some 40 per cent of applications were for two popular schools, Ashcroft and Graveney, the spokesman said/ “Two of the borough's best schools were also massively oversubscribed this year. 40 per cent of all first preferences were for these two schools, meaning 800 sets of parents were chasing 460 places,” he said.

“In addition just under 30 per cent of all our first preferences were from non-Wandsworth parents. Some of these choices were clearly unlikely to succeed but will still count in our statistics.”