A mother in Buckinghamshire has spoken out against the “broken system” of school place selection after discovering she now faces up to a three-hour round trip on public transport to get her child to and from class.
Karen Adams is one of two mothers in the area who has told the Guardian they may be forced to take their children out of the county to Northamptonshire to secure a school place.
Her proposed trip to the new school involves two bus changes and a journey time of up to one and a half hours, despite being a relatively short distance away. Her son, Isaac, has been offered a place at the Elizabeth Woodville school, instead of their preferred local comprehensive, which is within walking distance, and a nearby grammar school, which is a bus ride away.
Adams said there was a crisis in school places in the county, and blamed the grammar school system, which she called “a method of exclusion and elitism”.
“We took the 11-plus on the little tutoring I could afford as a solo parent, and missed out on a grammar place,” she said. “Despite appealing, my highly gifted child who is on the gifted and talented programme, and who had a headteacher’s recommendation and is forecast to exceed the set curriculum, has been shut out of the grammar system and out of the county.
“The system is broken and I will be pressing the local authority to provide a suitable education for my son within reasonable range.”
Leah Yeoman, 37, whose child was also offered a place out of the area, said: “It’s just the most bizarre situation to be in. I don’t mind my children travelling to a point but, even though it’s only about seven miles to this school, it’s all rural. It’s really hard to get to and we are in a remote area.”
Both mothers are now looking into alternatives, with Adams saying she is considering home-schooling her son. Yeoman said she hoped the council might organise a coach to take children to the Northamptonshire school.
Angela Rayner, MP, the shadow secretary of state for education, said the case highlighted an “awful” situation where “selection fails the vast majority of our children” and that “the existing state system is in crisis”.
“It is a double blow to these children who have already been branded as failures by the 11-plus, when all the evidence seems to show he has the ability to do very well. Yet the education system isn’t able to offer him a decent future, without serious hardship and disruption to his life. It really is an appalling indictment of government policy on both fronts.”
It comes after news that tens of thousands of families have been left disappointed after not getting a child into their first choice of secondary school on national offers day. Councils reported a further squeeze on places caused by an increase in applications.
A record number of children in London – where there has been a 2% increase in applications – missed out on their first choice of secondary school. The situation was similarly bad in larger cities across the UK.
In Buckinghamshire, 74.67% got their first choice, a decrease of 2.28% from last year. The council said they allocated 9% of children to a school outside of the county this year, although they added many chose to be out of area.
A spokesperson for Buckinghamshire county council said: “Our aim is to provide a fair and robust allocation process for all the county’s children; however, we understand the disappointment that some parents will feel if they have not been allocated their preferred school.”
- This article was amended at 9.30am GMT to change a factual error. The council said they allocated 9% of children to a school outside of the county
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