This is how many pupils are set to miss out on their first-choice Kent secondary school in 2017

One in five pupils who applied for a place in a Kent secondary school for this September will not be offered their first choice.

More children than ever before have applied this year, with a total of 19,442 applications received - an increase of 645 from 2016.

There were 2,745 applications for Kent schools from parents who do not live in Kent and of those, 810 secured an offer, although it's not known how many were given their first choice.

Overall, 5,186 children will not be offered a place at their first-choice school – 3,251 of those are living in the county. Meanwhile, 616 pupils in Kent will not be offered any of their top four preferences.

Although there is an increase in applicants, 287 more children will get their first preference secondary school than last year and over 96 per cent will receive an offer from one of the four schools they named.

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