Sheffield mum's frustration after council places daughter at school six miles from home for new term

Nazia Rehman says she feels she is “out of options” after her appeals to the council to find her little girl a different school were all turned down.

The 11-year-old pupil from Dobcroft is set to start secondary school this September.

But, after being turned down for her three choices, the city council has placed her at Chaucer School in Parson Cross – six and a half miles away.

It means she will start Year 7 without any of her friends from Dobcroft Junior School, and will need to take an hour long bus there and back every weekday.

“The council have really let her down,” said mum Nazia.

“I think it’s making her ill. She’s having panic attacks at the thought of it. This week was especially hard for her as it was her last week in Year 6.”

Nazia says her three choices for her daughter’s secondary placement were Mercia School, High Storrs School, and Silverdale School, for which Dobcroft Junior is a feeder.

However, figures released in March showed Silverdale and High Storrs are two of the most oversubscribed schools in Sheffield.

In fact, when places were announced earlier this year, some schools in the city were oversubscribed by more than a hundred spots each, and up to 1,121 allocations were put on a waiting list.

When she asked for the figures herself, Nazia found her daughter was number 42 on the waiting list for Silverdale and 35 for Mercia.

Now, despite losing her appeals, the Sheffield mum is hoping the council will see reason and place her daughter closer to home.

“None of her friends are in that school,” said Nazia.

“It’s really affecting her a lot. She just keeps saying ‘I don’t want to go’.

“There are no school buses to go on. She’ll have to take public transport on her own, and the last stop on the route is outside the school. It will take an hour each time.”

It comes after another Dobcroft mum was told in March her daughter would be starting at Chaucer, which would also have been a six mile journey.

The Star understands this mum was successful in her appeal to the council.

The mother could not be reached for comment.

It does, however, now mean Nazia’s daughter will be entirely on her own when she starts at Chaucer.

Sheffield City Council claims 95 per cent of children were offered places at one of their preferred schools.

Councillors Dawn Dale and Mick Rooney, co-chairs of the education, children and families committee, said: “We understand that applying for school places can be a very stressful time for parents and children, and we work hard to ensure that advice and guidance is available to parents so that they are fully informed and have the best chance of securing a place at a preferred school.

“However, we know how deeply disappointing it is when a place cannot be offered at a preferred school. We will always try to offer a place at a catchment school when a preferred school is not possible, and failing that, the closest school to the home address with available places.”