Boy, 11, is yet to start high school after losing outonplace
A SCHOOLBOY who was offered a 26-MILE round trip to school by taxi after being the only one to miss out on a place at his local school has yet to start comprehensive education this year.
Alfie Vollans, 11, from Peterstone between Newport and Cardiff, has been unable to start the school year after he missed out on a place at Bassaleg School.
Despite an appeal to Newport City Council by Alfie’s parents, they have been left trying to home school him alongside their day jobs.
The council has said school places are allocated in line with its admissions policy, which it is following.
Simon Vollans, Alfie’s dad, said the council offered to send Alfie to Llanwern School by taxi – a 26-mile round trip costing more than £8,000 per school year.
Simon, 62, said sending him to a school so far away was “out of the question” and that the situation was a “particularly nasty thing to do to a child” which had left him feeling “victimised”.
“He was the only one out of 291 kids in the catchment area to miss out, and he’s been separated from all his friends,” he said. “He can see the school bus passing every morning.”
Simon said that while there had been some school resources given by a friend and from the council, Alfie was mostly relying on his parents and online resources every day.
He said months with “no contact with his friends” was noticeably taking its toll on his son, and had knocked his confidence.
Simon said the family “do not know” the long-term impact of the situation on Alfie, but that they had asked to see a doctor as they were concerned about his mental health.
“We have spoken to the GP about it, because we don’t know how serious the impact of it is on his mental health yet.”
An appeal against the council’s decision was rejected by a panel earlier this year, and Simon claimed attempts to have it re-run were being refused.
He claimed the original appeal was not properly carried out on several grounds, such as not taking into account the fact Simon was diagnosed with bladder cancer earlier this year, that the council had previously said Alfie was first on the waiting list and that the council had incorrectly said it did not have the power to order a new appeal.
He said he had been left with few other options than an appeal to the ombudsman – a process he claimed could take from “six to 12 months” – or even appealing to Welsh ministers to resolve the issue.
In the meantime, he said the family had been left with no long-term resolution other than to keep Alfie at home.
“What we are hoping is that we can get this appeal going. At the end of the day there is an 11-year-old who is being excluded from his group,” he said.
“I don’t think [being at home] is an acceptable solution. I don’t really want to countenance that as an option.”
Simon added that he’d also undergone surgery and chemotherapy for bladder cancer and that the situation had been difficult for the whole family on top of his diagnosis.
“We’re reasonably hopeful that it might not be as serious as it could have been,” he said. [But] I could’ve done without the additional stress, if I’m honest.”
A spokesperson for Newport City Council said: “Places in Newport schools are allocated in line with our admissions policy, which is derived from Welsh Government guidance and is available to view on our website. This means that our approach is consistent with other local authorities in Wales.
“The admissions policy sets out that living in a school catchment area does not guarantee a child a place in that school. School admission numbers are set based on Welsh Government guidance and therefore reflect the number of pupils each school can safely accommodate.
“The number of applications received for September, 2021, Year 7 entry exceeded the number of available places for this school. In total, 93 on-time applications were declined. Twenty-five of these exercised their right to appeal the initial decision to an independent appeals body.
“This body is independent of the council and has the power to overturn the initial admissions decision in certain circumstances. A small number of appeals for this school were successful due to the specific circumstances of the applicants.
“All applications that were unsuccessful remain in the waiting pool for consideration should a place become available at their preferred school. We have every sympathy with families in this situation, but we have a duty to balance the needs of individuals with the school’s need to be able to safely accommodate pupils.
“Should an applicant feel that there was maladministration in the appeal process, they are able to refer this to the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales.”