A KENT secondary school has been ordered to discontinue its admissions policy of giving priority to children who make it their first choice when applying for places.

Canterbury High School had wanted to continue with arrangements it says most parents support and mean children who genuinely want a place there do not risk losing out to those who had failed the 11-plus.

But following a challenge from Kent County Council, the schools adjudicator has ruled that the school must end the policy. The ruling will have repercussions for 29 other secondary schools who have similar admissions arrangements, including Canterbury’s St Anselm’s Catholic School and Herne Bay High School.

The adjudicator, Andrew Baxter, has upheld KCC’s complaint that in operating a "first preference first" policy Canterbury High was limiting parental choice.

In a ruling, he accepted the school’s arrangements were objective, clear and fair when taken in isolation but not when considered in the context of Kent’s selective system.

He said: "Looking at the system as a whole, it seems to me to be unfair for any individual school to adopt an approach designed to limit the exercise of parental choice by seeking to close off options before parents have all the information they need to identify their first preference."

The school’s policy added "uncertainty to an already complex situation" he added.

The school had argued that KCC wanted to give greater weight to those taking the 11-plus and in offering a safety net to parents in the event they failed, it would end up turning away those who had not sat the test.

The school said it was disappointed by the verdict. KCC hopes the ruling will compel others to reconsider their own policy without the need for further challenges to the adjudicator.

However, some are understood to be prepared to carry on with the first preference first policy and there have been discussions among some heads about mounting a legal challenge to the latest ruling.