WILMSLOW kids have been allocated schools more than 20 miles away after failing to make it onto the roll of the town’s oversubscribed high school.
Shocked parents found out by letter that their children hoping to attend nearby Wilmslow High in September were instead to be sent to Northwich or Winsford, a journey which could take up to two hours each way.
Appeals procedures have been triggered amid dismay by many parents whose children were described as "upset" and disappointed not to be going to school alongside their friends.
A spokesman said there had been an unexpected surge in demand for places at Wilmslow High and demand outstripped the number of places at the school.
Admissions challenges are now going ahead and will be heard by an appeals committee headed by education chiefs.
Five pupils from Wilmslow Grange County Primary School, in Handforth, have been told they have not got a place at the popular high school.
Dad of one Andrew Hornby, 38, said his 10 year old daughter, who lives with her mum in Spath Lane, Handforth, has been told that she cannot go to Wilmslow High because she lives 0.2miles outside the catchment area - just 322 metres. And Woodford Lodge High School in Winsford is the alternative school put forward for her.
He said: "I am absolutely appalled and disgusted at my daughter being expected to go to Winsford.
"Wilmslow Grange County Primary School has always been a feeder school to Wilmslow High and my daughter has been there for six years and has lived in Handforth for a number of years. The system is wrong."
The train from Handforth Railway Station to Winsford leaves at 7.24am and takes one hour and seven minutes. But passengers have to change at Crewe at 7.57am before getting to Winsford for 8.24am. And from the station there is still a three mile bus journey to the high school.
Mr Hornby, a visual merchandise manager at Hoopers, added: "We both work full time and my wife looks after our daughter on her own, which is something that she put in her application, and there is no way we will be able to take her all that way ourselves. There is no compassion.
"The county council has said it will provide the cost of travel but that is not the point.
"Who in their right mind would send their 11 year old child all that way to an area they don’t even know. And she will be on her own because she won’t have any of her old friends."
Jane Snape, from Wilmslow, whose daughter goes to Alderley Edge School for Girls, said: "My daughter was told she would have to travel to Northwich but there is no way she can travel that far."
Parents express their three preferences in late October each year and are told where they have gained a place in early March.
But Gill Bremner, headteacher at Wilmslow High School said that although the capacity at the school was increased from 265 to 300 a few years ago, this year 637 parents put the school as their first choice.
Criteria used to prioritise applications from parents if the standard admission number is exceeded include: whether the child lives in the catchment area, if the child has siblings at the school, students with exceptional medical, psychological, personal or domestic circumstances, and students living nearest the school.
Mrs Bremner said: "We have every sympathy for their predicament.
"We are a popular school because we are successful and parents understandably want their children to come here.
"Some secondary schools have capacity because their numbers have fallen and this is why some families have been offered places in schools quite a long way away. That is not the case here.
"We are pleased that the school continues to go from strength to strength. Nevertheless we do not want to have more than the 300 students in each year."
County Councillor Adrian Bradley who represents Wilmslow South said 90 per cent of children in Cheshire had been given their first preference.
"I am quite confident that places will open up as parents decide to send their children to faith schools or independent schools instead.
"But in the mean time I am urging local families to get a strong application in before the March 21 deadline and not to get discouraged by this."
A spokesman for Cheshire County Council added: "There were seven pupils living within the school’s catchment area and attending feeder primary schools who were unsuccessful at the time of allocation. In addition there were 15 pupils not living in the school's catchment area but attending a feeder primary school who were also unsuccessful.
"Appeals should be received by March 21. After this date any places which become available will be offered to children on the school's waiting list which is held in criteria order. All appellants are automatically added to the school's waiting list."
