Admissions policy is there for all to see

The county council publishes a very clear guide as to what the entry criteria is for its schools and in what order the priority is given.It’s there on the internet for free download. Children with siblings at the school but living outside the catchment area are already prioritised, but are not at the top of the list and certainly come after children living within the catchment area in the pecking order. To claim that children are ‘being discriminated against’ is plain potty, as all the council is doing is following its stated entry criteria.

Nobody is being discriminated against; it’s just that, quite rightly in my opinion, children living in the catchment area (mostly, this means, nearest the school) are given priority, and if the places fill up then children living further away will miss out.

It may well have been different in previous years when the numbers wanting a place at an individual school may have been lower and meant that children further down the priorioty list got a place. And presumably if your child got a place on that basis you would have been well aware of the entry criteria and done something about it if you wanted younger siblings to attend the same school - such as move into the catchment area.

I do understand that having children at different schools will prove difficult for parents logistically, but the answer to my mind is simple. Move the older child to a school which you live in the catchment area of and send them both there instead. Of course it isn’t ideal as moving children between schools at any age can be disruptive, but if you have failed to plan ahead then I’m afraid there may only be tough choices left to make.

Stamping your feet in the local press and claiming that an open and transparent system is unfair just because you haven’t got what you wanted just seems childish and puerile to my mind.

Planning your children’s education is an important matter and perhaps if some of these ‘angry mums’ did a litle more of that then they may not be in this position in the first place? You do have to wonder what planet some folk are on sometimes. - Jenny Jones, Wilmhurst Road, Warwick.