Parents are angered by decisions on school places
CHILDREN living just a few streets away from a new £7.3m primary school built to serve the needs of a rapidly-expanding housing estate have been told they will not have places in September.
The news has angered parents, many of whom moved to the Parc Derwen estate in Coity, Bridgend, because the new Coety Primary School was built to serve the growing population.
Many already have older children in the school and now face the prospect of having to take their younger child to a different school each morning or moving their elder child too.
The parents, who had applied for full-time nursery and reception places for their children, were informed they had been unsuccessful by letter in the last few days.
Some of the children denied a full-time place are already attending the nursery class on a parttime basis.
One mum, who lives on Parc Derwen, said her daughter, who will be three in August, was refused a nursery place even though her son, five, attends reception at Coety Primary and they live within the catchment area.
She said they were told her daughter didn’t qualify even though the council’s criteria states that children of her age and residing within the school’s catchment area will be considered first.
The mum, who didn’t wish to be named, said: “We were so disappointed that our child didn’t get a place as our oldest child already attends Coety.
“We live in the catchment area and have our eldest child there so we cannot understand how they can have been refused a place.
“Part of the reason we bought in Coity was for the children to go to the school so we feel very let down.”
Janine Benson lives less than a mile from Coety School but it technically out of the catchment area.
However, her sevenyear-old currently attends Year 2 at Coety and her three-year-old attends nursery there on a parttime basis.
But her youngest has now been denied a fulltime nursery place and is likely to attend Bryntirion Infants, Janine’s second choice school, in the autumn.
She said: “It is absolutely laughable that this could happen to parents that already have children at the school and have to go through this ordeal in order for our children to get a place!
“In my point of view parents who have children at the school who live in the area should come first before anyone else.”
A council spokesperson said: “With regard to reception year admissions for September 2017, no applications have been refused for children living in the Coety Primary School catchment area and all Parc Derwen postcodes fall within the school’s catchment area.
“We are currently reviewing the applications for nursery admissions at Coety Primary School to ensure that eligible pupils receive a suitable place.
“We’re confident that there will be sufficient places for statutory school-age children in the catchment area, including Parc Derwen pupils, for the foreseeable future.”