North Leeds mums' fury as children allocated school six-and-a-half miles away

The mums from Alwoodley - who don't want to be named while they await the appeal process - were stunned to be told their 11-year-olds had failed to get a place at any of their five priority schools.

Instead, they had been allocated a place at Bishop Young Academy in Seacroft - over six miles, and three bus rides, away.

It follows a similar situation in south Leeds where over 60 pupils were allocated a place at the Seacroft school and another in east Leeds, up to nine miles away.

The south Leeds crisis was compounded by a delay in opening the new Lawrence Calvert Free School and the council has now provided a further 60 spaces at Cockburn School in Beeston to address the issue.

But in north Leeds, one mum told the YEP she believes the crisis is due to "poor council planning" in the area, which has had a well-publicised 'black hole' in primary school places over the past few years.

She said: "We were at the start of that - we had to go through the appeals process for a primary school place for my son. His school later added an extra class, along with many other schools in the area. I didn't know then but that was the start of what was a very big problem.

"The council knew there was a problem with the number of places and clearly haven't planned around it."

She added: "It's hugely stressful."

Her fellow mum said: "A 15-minute walk to the local high school is now three buses to a town my daughter has never even been to.

"We've lived in these houses for years and through no fault of our own, the catchment area for our local school has shrunk due to increasing pupil numbers."

Coun Dan Cohen (Cons, Alwoodley) said he was aware of eight Alwoodley parents who were in the same situation.

He said: "It is a real concern that some Alwoodley parents are struggling to get a place in a local school. It’s a source of immense anxiety to my local residents and there is a real worry that the council may have got its sums wrong when planning how many school places will be needed, not just this year, but in the years ahead.

"When one considers that the main high schools around Alwoodley are council run schools, this is especially concerning."

Phil Mellen, deputy director of learning at Leeds City Council, said they has been working closely with secondary schools in north Leeds for the past three years to address growing demand for year seven places.

He said this year, a key difference was that Allerton High was inspected by Ofsted and rated as 'outstanding' while Rossett Academy in Harrogate was inspected and rated as 'requires improvement'.

He said: "As well as affecting parental preferences, Rossett also decided to take significantly fewer students, which has a direct impact on places available in north Leeds."

he added: “In 2017, 50 additional permanent places per year (250 in total) were created at Roundhay School. Allerton High will offer an additional 22 places per year permanently (110 in total) from 2021, although the school have taken temporary bulges ahead of this through discussion with the local authority.

"A consultation recently completed on a proposal to create an additional 60 places per year at Allerton Grange School with effect from September 2021 and the school agreed to take an additional 60 places in Year 7 for September 2020 as a bulge. Carr Manor School has also taken an additional 30 children in Y7 for September 2020 as a temporary bulge cohort.”