Wirral parents were left in the dark about their childrens' school places after an email and website failure.
Hundreds of anxious mums and dads were expecting to be sent news about primary school places after midnight but eight hours later parents still didn't know.
Known as National Offer Day , today (April 16) should be the day thousands of parents across the country find out where their four and five year olds will be going for their first day of school in September.
But for Wirral parents attempts to access the website proved fruitless as it refused to load and email notifications were not sent out.
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One mum from Bebington told the ECHO: "It's ridiculous. We were supposed to be able to access the decision after midnight. The website is completely down and I even signed up to find out by email but this has yet to arrive. I've had messages from other parents in the same position. This has made a stressful day a million times worse. Maybe whoever is behind this mess should go back to school themselves."
Parents shared their frustrations on social media as they tried to figure out what had caused the blunder.
On Facebook one mum wrote:"I have just seen that other parents awaiting emails as well as not being able to go on site didn't know this but hope true as I have been trying to log on since 5am x"
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Another said she was a "nervous wreck" because of the delay.
One parent shared that they had a similar issue while waiting for news on Secondary School places a few weeks ago.
They posted on Facebook: "When I was waiting for my daughters high school place a few weeks ago, the website also crashed and emails were sent out but I didn't get mine until after 11am x"
Parents eventually managed to access the school places portal around 8.30am but some emails did not arrive until nearly 11am on Tuesday (April 16).
Wirral council have been contacted for comment.
If you have been affected by this get in touch or share your story in the comments below.
