My DD goes to a Faith School and is entitled to free transport as it is over 3 miles away. I've just logged into the admissions portal to apply for my son's school place and discovered they have opened a transport consultation. This has not been communicated to us at all.
The consultation states they want to remove free transport for faith applicants UNLESS in receipt of Free School Meals (we are not). My daughter will still be eligible, my son won't. They are proposing a spare seat offer which will cost £787 a year and won't guarantee a space- there is a criteria for spaces and my son would be in cat 5 of 6 as a sibling. If someone else wants to join the route and there's no space, they can withdraw your space, so no guarantees at all.
The consultation is due to finish in November, AFTER the deadline to apply for the school space.
If I apply for the Faith school and there is no transport, I can't get him there. My second choice school is my catchment, which is also over subscribed so he'd end up an an unspecified 3rd school- wherever has spaces once I decline the faith school. If I put the catchment first and the transport doesn't change, I won't be able to get a space at the Faith school as that is oversubscribed too. I don't know what to do- surely this is massively unfair? I'm being forced to put a school I don't want first, just to guarantee he can GET to school. Surely they should be consulting NOW for transport the following year, 2021? Please, tell me there's some code or another they are breaking by doing this now?
I appreciate that not everyone agrees that there should be free transport to faith schools, but this isn't what this post is about so please keep to the discussion. Do I have any right to challenge this consultation as it will adversely affect my son in one way or another? Please help!