Aimee stays home while brother Matthew heads for school

Little Aimee Plant is preparing to stay at home when term starts tomorrow - because education chiefs won't let her go to the same school as her brother.

While Matthew, ten, heads off to Clifton Without Junior School in York, seven-year-old Aimee will stay back.

Her frustrated parents have decided on the action while they resolve a dispute with the education system, which says Aimee can't join her brother at the school.

The Plants have appealed twice, unsuccessfully, and have now taken their case to the local government ombudsman.

Sheila Plant said: "We are fighting this because I can't have my children at two separate junior schools. I can't be in two places at once to take them and pick them up. It is a 20-minute walk between them."

She said Aimee could not understand why she was being stopped from attending the same school as her brother.

"It is a heartbreaking situation," she said.

Aimee, of Rivelin Way, Clifton Moor, York, finished at Rawcliffe Infants School last term but education bosses said she could not go to Clifton Without Junior because the Plants did not live in the school's catchment area.

Matthew had been allowed in because when he applied the school had spare places.

The nearest alternative for Aimee is Lakeside Primary School.

A spokeswoman for the local government ombudsman confirmed that the Plants' case was being investigated.

Peter Rotherham, education officer with City of York Council, said it was up to the independent appeals panels to decide if there were any extenuating circumstances, and in both cases they had found none.

He said: "It is always extremely upsetting when parents are unable to get a place at a school that they prefer.

"However, Mrs Plant has a place at a very popular primary school which is close by. Many children in her street go to this school. She is not in the catchment area for Clifton Without which is unfortunately full.

"We genuinely can sympathise with Mrs Plant but others have a greater entitlement to a place at Clifton Without."

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