Carol Battson is called away twice during our interview for an urgent phone call.

“Please excuse me but the phone will ring almost constantly between now and October 31,” she explains.

Mrs Battson will deal with hundreds of frustrated, emotional and pleading phone calls between now and that key date on her calendar.

Why? Because she leads the schools admissions team at Shropshire Council and October 31 is the deadline for all applications for secondary school places.

It is a date which is imprinted on her brain – both as a parent and as one of those responsible for finding a place for each child who applies to Shropshire Council.

She knows only too well how critical a time the next month is for parents and how worrying it is.

She said: “We are all parents here ourselves so we know exactly what people are going through.

Pressure

“The pressure is there because parents want the very best for their children and they want to get this decision right. They agonise over it, often for months or even years before the official process even begins”

It’s why Carol also finds the deadline date a matter of some frustration herself.

She is keen to point out that Shropshire has significant success when it comes to allocating first-choice places with 97.7per cent of pupils given the school at the top of their list of four possibles.

But the team at the Guildhall offices in Frankwell could possibly improve on that figure if every parent ensured they got their application in on time.

“We are bound by Government guidelines to consider late applications only after all those submitted on time are allocated their place. Even those that are not in the catchment area for that particular school.”

Last year 65 children, two per cent of the total applications, missed out on their first-choice school because of a late application while 28 children also missed out at primary school level.

Deadline

“I really want to remind parents of the deadline date and urge them to ensure their applications are in on time.

“We really do feel for those who miss out and don’t get their first choice. It is a difficult enough time as it is.”

Letters started arriving earlier this month which included application forms for secondary schools. Parents will have to wait until March next year to find out if their bid has been successful.

“We are fortunate in that we have good schools in Shropshire which means very often when I brace myself to speak to a parent to tell them they have their second-choice school I am pleasantly surprised at how pleased they are.”

But for some parents the situation is not so painless with many schools oversubscribed in the county by up to four times.

Figures from Telford & Wrekin Council reveal that Madeley Academy last year had 345 first preference applications with only 180 places available. Forty two families launched an appeal for a place with only 22 proving successful.

Meanwhile hundreds of families are desperate to win a place at two of the county’s most successful schools in Newport which both have fewer than 100 places available through the Local Authority process.

For the 90 available places at Adams Grammar School 300 first choice applications were received, although there is availability for 12 boarders.

Newport High School had 56 places available last year but saw 202 children bid for it as a first-choice school. The high demand has led to parents in the county moving home and enlisting the help of tutors in a bid to win a place.

Five appeals were launched last year by those who failed to get a place at either Newport High or Adams Grammar but none were successful.

However some schools are under-subscribed with the Sutherland in Telford giving away the lowest number of places last year – in June just 91 from the 130 available had been allocated with only 85 first preference applications filed.

Stirchley’s Lord Silkin was named at the top of the list by 88 children with 150 places available. More than 30 had listed it as a second, third or fourth preference school with 116 places allocated by June.

Mrs Battson said “Parents should really take their time and judge a school according to how it suits their individual child. It is so true that every child is different and will have different needs.

“They should take their time and my best advice would be that they visit the schools they are interested in and take their child with them to really see if they would be happy and thrive at that particular school.”

Special report by Tracey O’Sullivan