FURIOUS Redditch parents have slammed claims from Worcestershire County Council that ‘nine out of ten’ pupils have received a place at one of their preferred schools.
They say the first, second and third choices of some pupils at Walkwood Middle School have been ignored and instead they’ve been placed at schools elsewhere, some at Tudor Grange Academy and other at Ridgeway Academy.
One parent said: “It’s an absolute mess – many of us put St Augustine’s or Trinity High School as out first two places because they are the two closest and both came in to Walkwood to promote their schools.
“My child has been allocated Tudor Grange Academy and there is no way he is going there – it was never on our list.”
A second parent said her daughter would have to go past St Augustine’s to get to Tudor Grange, more than two miles away.
“It’s ridiculous – at the moment my daughter can walk to school and she could walk to Saints. Trinity High School is on the bus route, but as it is I’m going to end up driving all three of my children to different schools.”
Parents suspect their children are being pushed to Tudor Grange as it tries to recover from its two-tier entry experiment which saw hundreds of parents enrol their youngsters in other schools in protest.
Tudor Grange also came bottom of Redditch high schools in the overall Progress 8 performance league table published by the government – however its recent A Level results were the best yet.
A spokesperson for the County Council said 39 Redditch pupils did not get their first or second choice schools, 11 of whom were offered their third preference.
Of the 28 who did not get any of their preferred schools, 18 were offered Tudor Grange Academy and ten Ridgeway Academy.
Jodie Bolter, headteacher at Tudor Grange Academy said: “We understand that some parents may be disappointed they were not allocated a place at their school of choice.
“However, we have ensured that anyone who has wanted a meeting and a tour has had the opportunity to do so and to meet myself.
“We have recruited a number of new members of staff for September 2020, Trust leads in Maths and Science will also be based here and we are committed to providing an exciting and dynamic curriculum for our students.”
The appeals process is available at worcestershire.gov.uk/schooladmissions and any appeal should be lodged within 20 school days from the national offer day.
