A MUM whose child has been turned down for a place at three Oxford schools has been told by education officials to put her four-year-old daughter in a taxi to and from her new primary.

Erin Coyle and her husband Garrett are moving from their home in Kidlington to Wood Farm in Oxford, so that they don’t have so far to travel for school and work.

Their son Mohammed, 11, will be closer to St Gregory the Great Catholic School in Cowley, when he starts in September.

But the move has left daughter Cliona in limbo because she is struggling to get a place at a primary school near their new home in Pauling Road.

The family filled in their application form for a primary school before deciding to move to Oxford.

Mrs Coyle, 32, said Cliona was allocated a place at their second choice, North Kidlington Primary. But now they are moving they have applied for places at Wood Farm Primary, Windmill Primary or St Andrews Primary in Oxford, only to find all three are full.

Mrs Coyle, a theatre administration assistant at the Churchill Hospital in Headington, said: “It’s absolutely barmy. We have been advised to put her in a taxi and then give the bill to the county council, but it’s not something that I’m prepared to do.

“I don’t think it’s a sensible solution and I would be very surprised if any parent would agree to it.

“I don’t see the point of enrolling her at one school, knowing very well that she will have to switch to another in the near future, and I will now appeal.”

Mr Coyle is a recovery driver for the emergency services, based in Freeland, near Witney.

Earlier this month, 16 parents in the catchment area for Wolvercote Primary School were told their children had not been allocated places at the village school. Some had been given places at North Kidlington.

Parents must accept places by Friday and county council spokesman Louise Mendonca said the Coyle family should speak to admissions staff about the preferences they have made and the “general situation”.

She added: “It’s important that parents accept the place they have allocated by Friday but also stay on the continued interest list of the schools they would prefer their children to go to. Between now and the acceptance deadline on Friday and indeed nearer to September, it is likely that there will be a significant change in the situation.”

The county refused to say if there was another school within the city Cliona could go to.

The council says that more than 95 per cent of applicants have received one of their top three choices for primary schools this year.

affrench@oxfordmail.co.uk