New school will mean 15 hours travelling, say mums

Parents living on an island say their children's secondary school placement means they will spend more than 10 hours a week travelling by bus to get there.

Lisa Ditchman and Jo Gipson, from Mersea Island in Essex, said they both hoped their daughters would start Year 7 at Thomas Lord Audley School in nearby Colchester, but have instead been offered places at a school about nine miles (14.5km) away.

"Please just see the children as more than just a number on a spreadsheet," Ditchman pleaded with decision makers.

Essex County Council said individual schools decided which children were offered places and that families could submit appeals.

Both parents had applied only to Thomas Lord Audley, which is about seven miles (11.2km) from Mersea.

Many pupils can travel on a free direct bus because there is no closer secondary school.

But the pair, who did not provide a second or third choice, were offered places at Paxman Academy instead.

Children going there would need to get a bus to Colchester city centre and another to the school.

According to bus timetables, the journey would take just over an hour.

But Gipson said her daughter would need to leave home at 06:40 to walk to the bus stop, nearly two hours before lessons started.

"We don't want our 11-year-old daughters to be doing that really," the 38-year-old said.

Mersea is connected to mainland Essex by one road, which floods when there is a particularly high tide.

About 83% of children in Essex were offered their first choice school for the next academic year, the county council said earlier this month.

Thomas Lord Audley currently teaches 921 children, despite having capacity for 840 pupils, according to government data.

Both parents said they accepted the school was already overcrowded but questioned how it had decided who to offer places to.

"If they are still expected to get public transport, that's around 15 hours, if not more, travelling alone a week," Ditchman said.

The council said children who had not been offered a place at any of their preferred schools would have been allocated to the closest one available to their home address.

"Parents of children offered a place at Paxman Academy can make an application for school transport, and if the child is eligible under our transport policy, the council would provide it," it said.

Pupils are eligible for free transport if they go to their nearest secondary school and it is more than three miles (4.8km) away, according to the council's website.

The criteria is different for children with special educational needs and disabilities.

When questioned by the BBC, a spokesperson said if a child had applied for all nearer schools but been offered a place elsewhere, they could still be eligible for free transport.

Sigma Trust, which runs both schools, declined to comment and referred the BBC back to the local authority.

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