This is ridiculous surely ?

[MrsDoofenshmirtz]

I have a friend who's daughter is in year seven. She lives in a house directly opposite a lovely comprehensive school with great results.

They did not get a place at this school because it is a church school. Instead her daughter has to take two busses across town to get to a school with dreadful results where she knows no one. The cost of the bus for one year will be about £900, which they cannot afford.

Her child has mild special needs and finds this journey very stressful. For this reason her mother has had to take time off work to travel with her. They do not have a car or bikes.

I think they should at least be getting financial help with the bus costs or something. Has any one else had any experiences like this ? Did you get help ?

That's awful. Don't know what to say but I feel very sorry for your friend.

It is more that 3 miles, i think it is a complex route. They were told you could not get help here. Is it different in different places ? I think I will ring for them, they are so worn down by it all.

I guess they could appeal but like you say it would be hard. It just seems ridiculous to me. They can see the front of the school from their house. Honestly I don't know whey people don't get more angry about this.

Also, if there is a reason why the mother cannot drive and a reason (SN) why the child cannot cope with long bus journeys, they might be able to get transport paid. My disabled dd gets a taxi paid by the LEA, even though we are less than 2 miles from the school.

Church schools have to take a small % of the local community/non christian-I would ring the head and talk to them directly.....

Mother could drive but they are on a low income so don't have a car. The SN are speech and language delay and mild hearing problems. I don't even know if she has a statement. I know she struggles academically.

she can do a direction of statement(if the daughter has a statement that is)

her LEA will help her do this, I did it for my son to get him into the school I wanted after they said they couldn't take him.

Once they heard I was doing a direction of statement, they just took him right away as they knew they'd have to anyway once the direction was done.

this crap makes me so bloody angry

if it was me I would be screaming to the papers about it and shame them into giving me a place

but then again I would happily take two buses to avoid my children having to go to a church school

Ok thanks for the advice I feel i have some ideas for helping them now.

ring school
statement
ring about funding transport

Bloody ridiculous. In fact I may go to the school myself.

Appeal, appeal, appeal.... oh, and ring the papers.

Yes, in face she may have one. They have had a rough few years with family problems and are quite vulnerable at the moment. She rang this morning to say they were not going in and they had had enough and she cried. I have the morning off so I will pop round and make calls for them.

in fact sorry not in face

she can definitely direct the statement to the local school, LEA will help her do it - they can only refuse if she is physically diasabled and they have no ramps or disabled access etc

in making school choices why wasn't the nearest school where you were most likely to meet the entry criteria put number 1, or perhaps it was

Unfortunately for you over-subscribed church schools are not required to take applicants from the non-faith community (though of course under-subscribedd faith school are required to admit non faith applicants.

It was put as number one but they didn't meet the church attendance criteria. They got second choice and second nearest non faith school. I know they are not "required" to take her however, to me seems positively un christian and unfair especially in this case.

Try the statement route. TBH I'd get her out of the not-so-good school and home-ed until a place somewhere better can be found but I have no idea if that is an option for your friend.

I'm wondering if this is a CofE school, in which case maybe contacting the local priest and the diocese (even the bishop?) might help.

Thinking outside the box for a moment, do you have any fee paying schools nearby that might be prepared to give this girl a 100% bursary? Very academic ones might not but some private schools do tend to be havens for dc with SEN.

Contacting the head, priest, bishop, etc. won't help. They have no authority to admit this child to the school. If the school is full up to the admission number the only ways to get admitted are through an appeal or by getting a statement naming the school.

Contrary to statements elsewhere on this thread, the Admissions Code does not require faith schools to limit admissions on faith to a certain percentage, although many do. Also, whilst most schools and LAs use distance as a tie breaker, some use a lottery instead which can result in situations like this.

If the shortest walking route from the child's home to the allocated school is more than 3 miles the LA must provide free transport for her. The council cannot get out of this obligation. They are obliged to pay by law. Saying "we don't give help here" is equivalent to saying "we break the law here". Some councils seem to try all kinds of imaginative ways to get out of this obligation, I'm afraid, but it is a clear entitlement in this situation.

When the allocations were sent out the letter should have stated why this girl was not given a place at the preferred school. Look at that carefully to see if a mistake was made, e.g. placing her in the wrong category or getting the wrong distance to her home. If there was a mistake it should be possible to get it overturned on appeal. Even if there was no mistake, it is worth appealing and putting forward the problems. If there is good medical evidence to support this (and it needs to say, "in my opinion", not "Mrs X tells me") then there is a reasonable chance an appeal panel will decide to admit her. The medical evidence would need to show why sending this girl to the allocated school causes problems for her. Transport issues aren't normally something an appeal panel can take into account but it is different if you can show that this girl is more seriously affected than other children of her age.

The child has only just started in year 7, so any immediate appeal would probably not be very valid. The obvious route for an appeal is to show that this 2 bus journey requirement to the designated school is causing the child undue stress etc because of their mild special needs. It is highly unlikely that you will get a statement unless they already have one, so the only course of action is through your GP. As PRH says this needs to be a clear statement by the GP that the child is suffering from stress, that they are being treated but with no improvement and that the source of the stress is the school bus journey. Being realistic that can only hapen after say Christmas. There may also be an angle on the hearing front, that this is potentially a safety hazard, crossing roads etc.

If there is a statement of special needs in place, then they have been very badly adviced. They can specifically name the school and the school and LA have to abide by that request unless they can point to very good reasons not to. You need to check this out and if necessary put a bomb under the LA.

There is the other issue of why the LA is not paying the travel expenses and this should be pursued as a separate issue now. If the LA continues to deny the need for travel expenses, which would be potentially be illegal, it then also becomes an added reason for admission to the school across the road - the LA denying the costs etc.

There is a big gap between the situation of requesting a preference / appeal at year 7 entry and an appeal for the same school during the school year. The faith issues are not then relevant it becomes what level of prejudice is there to the school and the child involved.