'We missed school waiting for places' (From The Argus)

'We missed school waiting for places'

4:30pm Monday 29th September 2008

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Two children spent the first three weeks of the academic year at home while the council struggled to find them school places.

Rhiannon Pyett, 12, and brother Nicholas, ten, have been spending days around the house with their mother Sonja, while their would-be classmates have been making friends and getting on with lessons.

Mrs Pyett said she had been frustrated and angry as the family waited for something to happen. She said: “The children have been bouncing off the walls.

You might think they would be happy to be off school but they haven’t been. They’ve been getting very bored and just wanted to get started.”

Mrs Pyett said the problem arose when she moved to Saltdean, Brighton, with the children and her husband Andrew in August.

The family had been living in Ireland but moved to be close to her parents, who were unwell.

Before moving Mrs Pyett tried to call schools in Brighton to make arrangements for the children but was unable to get through as they were closed for the summer holidays.

She only eventually got through once term started, on September 3, when she discovered she should have been contacting Brighton and Hove City Council all along. The council has a duty to provide school places for every child living in the city. Mrs Pyett said that when she called them she was told she needed to fill in an application form so the school places could be considered.

She filled it in as quickly as possible and it reached the council on Monday, September 8. She finally found out her children were being given places on Thursday, September 24, more than a fortnight later.

Mrs Pyett said: “It has been very frustrating. I just wanted them to be at a school, any school. We’ve just moved here and they need to settle in.”

The children have been given places at their nearest schools, Saltdean Primary in Chiltington Way, Saltdean, and Longhill High, Falmer Road, Rottingdean.

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokesman said the Pyetts had originally asked for a place for Rhiannon at Cardinal Newman Catholic School, in Upper Drive, Hove, which delayed the process.

He said: “The school wrote to the parents on September 19 saying they could not offer a place so we offered the family a place at Longhill, their second preference, as soon as we could.

“For primary places we can only offer a space where there is a vacancy. We offered the Pyetts the only space at Saltdean Primary for their second child as soon as we knew about it.

“We may have been able to secure places for the beginning of term if the family had contacted us earlier, as we did for many others who contacted us in the holidays.”

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