One in 10 children in Shropshire failed to get a place at their preferred secondary school this year, official figures today reveal.

Local authorities in the county received 5.390 applications from parents, with 89.9 per cent of children offered places at their first choice schools for September.

This means 10.1 per cent of children were refused their preferred choice despite new laws to make admissions fairer.

The rules were designed to stamp out unfair practices such as schools interviewing parents and pupils, or asking for personal information about their backgrounds, and even requesting cash gifts to secure a place.

The results have raised fears that some schools are still using unlawful methods to select pupils from middle-class homes, perceived to be less trouble and easier to teach.

In Telford & Wrekin, some 2,147 applications were lodged, from which 87.9 per cent of youngsters were offered a place at their preferred secondary school.

The number of applications totalled 3,243 across the rest of the county, with 91.8 per cent of children getting a place at their first choice school.

Details of the success rates for applications by some 568,723 families in 138 local authorities in England were released by the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Nationally, about 82 per cent were offered places at their first choice schools.

Education Secretary Ed Balls promised further reforms to the admissions system for next year’s application cycle after officials’ analysis of practices in Northamptonshire, Manchester and Barnet in London revealed some schools were breaking the new Schools Admissions Code.

Practices included asking parents to commit to making financial contributions as a condition of admission; not giving looked after children the priority required by law; asking about the marital status, occupational or financial status of parents; giving priority on the basis of family members who are not siblings attending the school; and interviewing children.

Mr Balls said such practices “must stop immediately” and added tougher scrutiny of procedures in the future would “help ensure that every parent has a fair chance of getting their child a place at a school of their choice, and that no parent or child will be disadvantaged by unfair admission arrangements”.