Comedian Romesh Ranganathan has slammed the council after his youngest son was not offered any of his preferences for secondary school.
The comedian, from Crawley, posted a video on Instagram criticising West Sussex County Council’s treatment of the issue.
In the video he explains how his youngest son had received a school place “on the other side of town”, rather than the one that his eldest son already attends.
He said: “The school that we put down was the same as his brother’s.
“They’ve said: ‘You’re not having that. Not only not having that, you’re not having any of the schools you put down as a preference. In fact, we’ve placed you at a school the other side of town.'”
This video contains strong language.
Ranganathan added that he had emailed the council six times with no response, and after a local MP got involved was told that an investigation by the council found the placement to be “satisfactory”.
In the social media post, he said: “One of the emails I was begging, just going: ‘Please, please. We don’t know what we’re going to do about our son’s schooling next year.’
“I end up going via my local MP. I said: ‘Can you just help me with this?’ He says: ‘Leave it with me.’ I wait two weeks.
“They come back and say: ‘West Sussex looked into it, they can’t do anything. They have conducted an investigation of their placement procedure, and they found it to be satisfactory.’
Romesh added: “Then he said to me: ‘I’m sure it’s disappointing.’ It’s more than disappointing. It’s not the football, it’s my son’s school placement.”
A spokesperson for West Sussex County Council said: “We don’t comment on individual matters, but we acknowledge the disappointment when students cannot be placed at their first choice.
“We will always work with families to ensure a suitable school placement can be found.”
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