A MOTHER has branded a county council system “ridiculous” after her son was allocated a school when there were 36 closer to his home.

Prospective secondary and primary school pupils were this week told the school they had been given for the next academic year.

Four per cent of primary and three per cent of secondary pupils in Oxfordshire – 467 in total –were not allocated places at any school their parents had picked.

Parents have the option of putting down up to three schools, ranked in order of preference.

Tracey Richens, from Goslyn Close, Headington, Oxford, has already appealed to the council after finding out her son, Robbie Cowley, four, was turned down from Larkrise Primary School, in Boundary Brook Road — where he had been at the foundation unit since September.

She said: “It’s absolutely ridiculous. My daughter, Tenisha, went there and I went there as well, so it’s a bit of a family school, a special school for me.”

Miss Richens, a maternity care assistant at the John Radcliffe Hospital, was so convinced she would not have a problem getting Robbie a place at Larkrise that she only put down one preference.

But Robbie has been allocated a place at Botley Primary School even though, according to the Direct Gov website, there were 36 primary schools closer to her home.

The 32-year-old said: “I will lose my job if he doesn’t go to a school that is near me because I will always be late for my shifts going through the traffic.

“I have spoken to all the teachers at the school and they said they don’t understand it.

“I do feel like maybe I was penalised for only putting down one choice, but I just didn’t even think he wouldn’t get a place.”

Robbie was one of 275 primary school children and 192 secondary pupils in the county not to get places at any of the schools they asked for.

National figures have not yet been released, but last year six per cent failed to get one of their top three choices and about one in five did not get their first choice.

John Mitchell, a spokesman for Oxfordshire County Council’s children, young people and families department, said 89.5 per cent of primary school children had been allocated their first choice school.

He said: “We have immense sympathy for any parent who finds themselves in this position.

“Parents have a right to express a preference for a school they would like their children to attend, but that has to sit alongside the fact schools have finite capacity and if you put the two things together there will always be occasions that some schools will be oversubscribed.

“The consequences obviously vary considerably from case to case and we would point out parents have the right to an appeal to an independent panel.”

He said there had been more than 500 additional applications for primary school places across the county compared to September last year.

For secondary school applicants, 89.5 per cent of pupils were allocated their first choice and 97 per cent one of their first, second or third choices.

fbardsley@oxfordmail.co.uk