A heartbroken mum fears her daughter will miss out on making new friends when the majority of youngsters head to secondary school next week – because she did not get a place at her chosen school.

Bindi Livett and her husband are being forced to home-school their 11-year-old daughter Vienna because she has no secondary school place secured.

Vienna, who dreams of becoming a vet and has lived in High Wycombe her whole life, wanted to go to Cressex Community School because of its focus on science.

She has been put on a waiting list for the school – which is in the catchment area for their address in Wyatt Close – and was instead offered a space at Bourne End Academy, but Mrs Livett said the journey to and from there would be too much for her daughter, who suffers with anxiety. She said: “Bourne End is just out of the question. Vienna would have to take two buses to get there and she has anxiety issues.

“We did everything by the book but still Vienna will not be going to school next week like every other child. It’s disgusting. She wants to go to school, she wants to learn. I just want her to go to a school that she wants to go to. It is so stressful.”

Mrs Livett has also expressed her anger that their position on the waiting list for a place at Cressex keeps getting lower – pushing their dream school further out of reach.

She said: “We were 11th in the list, then 13th and now we’re 23rd. It’s ridiculous – we just keep getting pushed back. We really liked Cressex because it’s had millions ploughed into it to make it a good school.”

A spokesman for Bucks County Council said on allocation day this year, 97 per cent of resident children applying for their catchment school as their first place were given a place.

They said: "Our aim is to provide a fair and robust school admission process for all the county’s children. Our figures show that on initial allocation day this year we offered 97 per cent of resident children applying for their catchment school as their first preference school once grammar school qualification is taken into account.

"All pupils transferring to secondary school have been offered a school place. This demonstrates that sufficient places are available to be a good overall match with parental preferences.

“It’s understandable that some parents might feel disappointed if they have not been allocated their preferred school. We always encourage parents to express more than one, and up to six, preferences on their secondary school application.

"This is because if only one or two preferences are expressed and a place is not available at those schools, we will allocate the next nearest school for which they are qualified for admission, which has a place available. Places at all schools are offered in ‘admission rules’ order according to the published admissions policy of each school.

“Our advice to parents if they are unhappy with the school place their child has been allocated is to accept the school place offered for the time being to ensure their child has a school place for September; they can then amend/add new preferences to their application and their child will be included on the waiting list for those schools.

“Any vacancies that arise will be offered from the waiting list, which is held in admission rule order for each school. A child's position on a waiting list can go up or down as other children join or leave the list, depending on whether they have a higher priority in the admission rules. Additionally, parents can consider asking for an admission appeal for a place at a particular school.

“Full information on our allocation process is available at https://www.buckscc.gov.uk/services/education/school-admissions/moving-up-to-secondary-school/”