CHILDREN are being denied a place at their local school by Kent County Council because of stringent admission rules.

Nine children from Snodland have been refused a place at Holmesdale Technology College after KCC ruled that the school's Published Admissions Number must not exceed 120, despite it having admitted up to 130 pupils in previous years.

The pupils and parents are angry and upset. And eight of them plan to appeal.

Under Government rules, every school has a PAN, based on 30 pupils per class. For Holmesdale, a four-form entry school, the PAN is 120. In previous years, the school has been allowed to bend the rules.

But this year it has been told it cannot admit more than 120, leaving some local children who live within 10 minutes' walk from the school without a place.

Head teacher Ian Hobson said: "For me, the issue is that there will be a number of families from Snodland who will have to go past our door and three miles on to go to Aylesford or The Malling School.

"Yet we have the space and the resources to accommodate these children. It's a nonsense.

In previous years we always admitted a few more and then after results and appeals it got down to 120 or thereabouts, though we usually went over our PAN to accommodate pupils.

"This time we have been told we have to stick to the rules. There's no leeway, except for exceptional circumstances. I think ours are exceptional circumstances and the rules should be bent.

"I don't blame KCC but I think they are struggling to manage this. I think the rules are preventing the right thing being done by local children."

In previous years Holmesdale has been able to deal with its own admissions procedure, but this year, after allowing the school to rank the children in order of admissions criteria, KCC has made the final decision.

"There were 360 children this year. We had to rank them by siblings of current pupils first, then those living closest," said Mr Hobson.

"Then we went back to the LEA and they shoved our choices onto one of their super-computers to sort out the final list."

Cllr Leyland Ridings (Con), cabinet member for schools organisation, said: "The school agreed that their number should be 120. In previous years they must have had approval to increase the number on a temporary basis, but the scheme at the moment is very rigid.

"I am not in the business of not helping schools, so I will have a word with the DfES and see if I can help. I am hoping to build a degree of flexibility into the rules."