Angry York parents today attacked the city's education department after their children lost out on the places they wanted at secondary school.

ANGRY: Craig Adamson and his son, Matthew, aged ten, who are angry at being offered a place at a school they did not put anywhere on their list of six preferred secondary schools Picture: Frank Dwyer

Parents at Woodthorpe Primary School are angry at being offered places at a school they did not put anywhere on their list of their six preferred secondaries.

They have won the support of Woodthorpe's Chairwoman of Governors, Coun Ann Reid.

She said today: "My main concern this year is that there are quite a few children who haven't got any of the schools they chose. Of the children transferring from Woodthorpe, 17 per cent didn't get any school they chose."

Craig Adamson said he had put down Millthorpe School as first preference for his ten-year-old son Matthew, but had been offered a place at Lowfield School, which was not on his list at all.

Mr Adamson, of Foxwood Lane, said: "I would be more happy if they offered us Oaklands because Matthew's two younger brothers will go there."

From September 2001, when the admissions system changes, the Woodthorpe area will fall into Oaklands School's catchment.

He said Oaklands was 12 minutes' walk from his house, crossing one major road, whereas walking to Lowfield involved crossing two major roads and passing Oaklands and took 20 minutes.

"If I have to pay to have him in public school for a year until he can get into Oaklands, I will," he said.

Julie Sharples, of Dalmally Close, said her son Mark, 11, had also put Millthorpe down first, as her daughter, Helen, was in her final year there.

But because she will have left by September, he had not qualified under the brothers and sisters priority rule. He had been offered a Lowfield place, which he had not put down on his list.

Mrs Sharples said: "We've just no choice. They say we have a choice but we don't."

Mark Ellis, assistant education officer at the City of York Council, said Millthorpe had been oversubscribed this year with first preferences and the number of admissions there had been increased.

But priority among pupils who put Millthorpe first was given to those who lived nearest to it and that was where some Woodthorpe parents had lost out.

Oaklands had been filled with pupils who put down Oaklands as their first preference.

He said 80 per cent of Woodthorpe pupils had got into their first preference school, including 22 pupils who got into Millthorpe.

"We do sympathise with parents but the important thing is that we've allocated places in line with our admissions policy and that every parent has got a right to appeal," he said.

A meeting is being held on Tuesday at Woodthorpe to be attended by Mr Ellis, principal education officer Murray Rose, and Lowfield head teacher John Thompson.

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