Promise to Bristol parents over schools fiasco

Parents are being assured that temporary classrooms will be in place at a number of Bristol primary schools in time for the start of the new academic year.

Twelve schools have agreed to take extra pupils in September to help cope with the unprecedented demand for reception class places and talks are continuing with one more school.

Some primaries will have portable buildings and others will see modifications to their premises, at an estimated total cost to the council tax-payer of £1.3 million.

Annie Hudson, interim director of children, young people and skills, said this week she was very grateful to the schools that were helping the council out.

"We are really appreciative of the work that heads, governors and staff teams have put in with our officers over the past few months. Partnership with schools is pivotal to getting the right places in the right parts of the city," she said.

A report to the city council's Liberal Democrat-run cabinet tonight reveals that these efforts have secured 236 extra places, with the possibility of 30 more.

The places are at: Cabot, 30; Glenfrome, 30; St Barnabas, 26; Sefton Park, 30; Hannah More, 30; Millpond, 30; Badock's Wood, 15; Filton Avenue, 15; Little Mead, 10; Stoke Bishop, 15; and Ashton Vale, five. Westbury-on-Trym had already agreed to take an additional class.

Councillors will be told that all 4,491 applicants have now been offered a school and that fewer than 10 children have been allocated a place more than two miles from home.

Although this means the local authority has fulfilled its legal obligations, councillors, council officers and parents agree that it is not enough.

The law states that it is reasonable for children to have a walk to school of up to 45 minutes and that primary pupils placed more than two miles away should have their transport paid.

While most people would agree that a walk of up to a mile is acceptable, journeys of between one and two miles are often difficult to undertake daily by parents with several small children.

This is particularly the case in the first weeks at primary school, when many reception class pupils are at school only for half-days, meaning carers potentially face three hours a day walking to and from school.

The council says it does not consider bus routes when allocating school places because its aspiration is for all children to be able to attend a primary school within easy walking distance of home.

But this will have a hollow ring to scores of parents across the city who have failed to be allocated a place at any of three schools close to where they live.

Ms Hudson said it was important to remember that while 238 families in Bristol had not been given one of their three preferred schools, nearly 95 per cent of parents had got one of their preferences.

Councillor Clare Campion-Smith, cabinet member for children, has pledged a cross-party approach to seeking long-term solutions to the problem and officers are carrying out a review of Bristol's primary admissions to try to find out what went wrong this year.