Parents say they will have to home school their daughter after struggling to secure school place for September

Stuart, Keeley and Kacey Mosoph

Keeley and Stuart Mosoph are worried that they will have to home school their daughter from September, as they have been unsuccessful in securing a school place for her.

Keeley and Stuart originally applied for their daughter Kacey to attend Sandbrook Community Primary School as Kacey is currently in the nursery there.

Speaking to Rochdale Online, Keeley said: “We applied for a place at Sandbrook School as she is in the nursery there and is familiar with the school, but she didn’t get a place. Sandbrook was the only school we wanted her to go to.”

After being told that Kacey could not attend the school, Keeley and Stuart appealed the decision but were unsuccessful.

“We appealed the decision but we knew before we even went into the room that we had been rejected. You could tell a decision had already been made,” said Keeley.

Keeley and Stuart then tried to get Kacey into Lowerplace Primary School and were sure that there were places available at the school. Despite this, Kacey was given a place at Deeplish Community School, a school that is currently in special measures.

Keeley added: “She has been given a place at Deeplish Community School, which is a special measures school, but she was given the place at Deeplish when there were places at Lowerplace.

“We haven’t been given any reason as to why she didn’t get a place at Lowerplace. We were told that she got sent to Deeplish because it was the next available school.

“I have spoken to Lowerplace and they have said that, unfortunately, it is up to the council to make the decision and that is what seems to be making it harder for us.”

The family live on Kirkholt, just off of Hill Top Drive, and both parents work full time.

“We have to arrange for people to pick her up and drop her off as well so it’s not just as simple to say go to the next nearest school,” added Keeley.

Keeley and Stuart have rejected the place at Deeplish Community School and are worried that without a place come September, Kacey will have to be home schooled.

She added: “If we don’t get a place at a school that we want her at, we will have to home school her. We have rejected the place at Deeplish and when we were at the appeal, the reasons we gave for rejecting the place were agreed by everyone in the room.

“It’s not just the fact that it is a special measures school. I have spoken to mums from nursery who are Asian and they have told me that they would also reject the place. It’s not a race thing but she would be singled out at that school and would be left out. She has blonde hair and blue eyes and wouldn’t fit in.

“We were told that she didn’t get into Sandbrook because she didn’t meet the criteria. It goes off of a ranking system, so if you have a sibling at the school, you will get a place and then it goes off of distance. But out of 60 places, 38 of the people accepted already had a sibling at the school so how are other children going to stand a chance if siblings are taking over.”

Keeley is now looking to get help in fixing the situation. She has tried to contact Rochdale MP Simon Danczuk, but has had no success and has also tried to seek help from her local councillors.

“I spoke to someone at RMBC on Friday and it was explained to me but it doesn’t make any sense to me at all,” said Keeley.

Sue Eastwood, Head of Schools at Rochdale Borough Council, said: “We use a fair and transparent system to allocate school places and our procedures are very similar to those which are followed by other local authorities.

“In this case, although parents are advised to put three schools on their application in order of preference, only one option was volunteered. In situations where no second or third choice school has been stated, we will then offer a place at the nearest school to the applicant’s home which has places available.

“Although the family in this case later expressed a preference for Lowerplace School, at that point in the process it was considered to be a late application and was ranked accordingly alongside all other late applications received.”