My son’s been offered a school place 16 miles away – it’ll take 3.5 hours to walk there & he’ll have to cross the M1
A MUM told how her son has been allocated a school which will take three-and-a-half hours to walk to – and involves crossing a motorway.
Alternatively pupil William Sparks could get public transport there – but that takes two hours too.
Even cycling takes an hour and will see William, 13, navigate the busy M1.
Fuming childminder Karen Sparks, who lives in Leighton Buzzard, Beds., is now considering quitting her job and homeschooling him.
Up until now William has been at ‘middle school’ (ages nine-13) which is a schooling system Central Bedfordshire Council uses.
So there are just two ‘upper schools’ (13-18) in his area – Cedars School and Vandyke School – both which are rated well.
I do not understand why my son appears to be being penalised
Karen
But Karen believing he would’ve flourished more in Vandyke School – largely because of the more vocational GCSE choices she says it offers – so only put this down and failed to add Cedars as a second choice.
It meant once he was rejected from Vandyke, he was sent to a school 16 miles away called Harlington Upper School.
She admitted failing to add a second choice was partially her error but said it was still madness to expect a child who was only 13 to travel so far to school everyday.
“I honestly thought if he did not get into Vandyke he would be offered a place at Cedars,” Karen, married to plumber Paul, 53, and mum to Rosie, 10, said.
“People outside of the area have been offered places over a local resident.
“I appreciate now that I should have put down a second choice.
“But other people also chose schools out of catchment and didn’t have a second choice and still got their first choice. I do not understand why my son appears to be being penalised.”
She had heard anecdotally of other children’s parents only putting down one choice but getting into a closer school, but equally the reverse happening and children being allocated schools miles away.
“We were shattered when we found out that he didn’t get the place we wanted and had been offered a place at Harlington,” she said.
I appreciate now that I should have put down a second choice.
Karen
“This is 16 miles away, a 40-plus minute drive, 1hr 48 mins by public transport or one-hour to cycle, crossing the A5 and M1.
“You couldn’t walk it.”
The 47-year-old claimed the council was “aware oversubscription was an issue.”
“We are currently appealing the decision but won’t know anything until May for our first appeal,” she said, adding he would likely be entitled to transport but she was still unhappy he would have to endure a long commute.
“This will have a massive impact on him,” she said. “He trains four nights a week for martial arts and three nights a week for bike trials.
My son is an excellent student, attends school every day, produces good results and does the best he can.
Karen
“The impact of going to school out of the area would be massive on his mental health.
“My son is an excellent student, attends school every day, produces good results and does the best he can.
“It is ridiculous he’s been sent to a school which is so far away.”
A Central Bedfordshire Council spokesperson said: “It is unfortunate when we cannot offer a preferred school place with allocations given priority where parental choices are indicated, and while we can’t comment on individual cases while an appeal is ongoing, all school places are allocated according to each school’s oversubscription criteria.
“There is not a shortage of school places in this area, but we have a duty to offer a school placement to any pupil that lives in Central Bedfordshire who was not offered a place at a preference school. This placement will be at the nearest school with spaces available.
“And if this distance is over three miles, then the child will be entitled to school transport, which parents will need to apply for.”
