Answers demanded over school place fiasco

We are writing to you to express our concern and absolute horror that our daughter has been left without a school place.

The letter we received gave no explanation and merely suggested we might want to appeal against the decision ‘not to allocate’.

My daughter still doesn't really understand and, why should she? When has any child ever been told that they may not be able to go to school because adequate provision has not been made?

She has reasonably expected all her primary school life that she will move on to a secondary school, her only concern being which of the two local and walkable ones it would be.

Which of the councillors and cabinet members who are responsible for the decisions that led to my daughter being without a school have written to her to say sorry? Who has explained the process and failings that led to her being without a school?

Who has made a statement explaining exactly what they are doing now in order to ensure she can go to one of her local schools?

We can tell you that the answer is no-one.

All those responsible have fallen silent, closed ranks and shut the door. The admissions department will not speak directly to parents. We placed our daughter on the waiting lists as instructed, an email had to be sent three times and followed up by a difficult phonecall with customer services in order to establish and receive written confirmation that she had indeed been placed on the waiting list.

My faith in this council's ability to perform has been completely destroyed. The admissions department merely re-iterate the importance of appealing: nowhere in any of the documentation that we have trawled through so far does it say how to appeal against ‘non-allocation’.

We ask those responsible to turn up to the meeting being held on Tuesday (7.30pm, at Moor Hall) and explain to my daughter how they have allowed this to happen and what they are doing to ensure she can go to a local school that she can walk or cycle to!

We, along with all other parents, want to know why this was allowed to happen and what exactly is being done to rectify it.

We greatly appreciate the effort that Cllr MJ Saunders has gone to in order to extract answers from those responsible; we look forward to hearing what they have to say.

SHARON AND CHRIS PRICE
Burnt Oak
Cookham