You don't know that.
This is a serious issue, the lack of school places and the implications of the Greenwich Judgement. Some schools round here didn't take any kids from more than 600 metres away last year. Getting on for 10% of kids didn't get places at all, never mind in their chosen schools.
The story is real, it's just the way the Mail has handled it, clichéd and lazy. Oh, and they've done the immigrant-bashing bit at the end.

Having looked at a map of Osset it looks like the town has at least 4 primary schools relatively close to each other so I would be surprised if there is a general lack of primary places in the town. The school mentioned in the story only seems to have become an Academy in November of last year and in recent times pupil numbers do seem to have started to rise. Whilst I know of a number of secondary schools that are academies I don't know of any primary schools that have so far gone down this route. May be as a result of it becoming an academy it has received extra funding and now parents in the area see it has the school where they want to send their kids to.

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www.newshuddlines.blogspot.com

Possibly true. In which case it is not her fault, is it?

I know it would be really difficult for a parent who doesn't drive to take two twins to different schools every morning - but surely there must be some kind of help for people in her position. I can't believe that there would be nothing in place to assist a parent who physically cannot get their child to the school that they've been alotted, it kind of reads as if she's keeping one of them at home just to make a point to the council.

Like a lot of parents she's desperate to keep her kids together. Quite apart from any emotional reasons it makes life very much simpler when training days, parents' evenings, PTA events coincide. It's not an unreasonable request.
At one time schools used to have spare capacity - there were unused places for pupils who arrive during the academic year and slack on the staffing numbers. Not now, that's cuts. For the Mail to blame it on immigrants is a pretty foul lie.

Oh yeah, I get that it'd be a nightmare having to do two school runs, go to two different parents evening, two different PTA meetings etc., I was just wondering why she took the decision to home-school the twin who didn't get a place. I mean, she certainly isn't the only parent in the country - surely the council would help get the other child to the other school. Plus, especially with twins, it must cause a lot of resentment if one of them is out at school whilst the other is stuck indoors with mum all day.

The council would have to help if the only school available for twin no. 2 is more than two miles away, but that changes at the age of 8 when the qualifying distance is three miles. It would be interesting to know whether they've made that offer to this family - I tend to find that, time and again, families who clearly would qualify for transport (for example, because the child is disabled, when different rules apply) don't get it. There is virtually no chance that the council would help if they're not compelled to by law: I tend to find that councils have to be dragged kicking and screaming into providing transport, not least because for some reason they seem to be very bad at negotiating sensible deals with taxi companies.

That's always been my experience. Plus at their age an unaccompanied taxi ride isn't a great idea. We've already had sadface stories about a kid left waiting because a bus was re-scheduled and there was no member of staff to meet her. In my experience taxis are even less reliable, often turning up late due to a previous fare being late, or taking on an extra job 'on the way'. Unless you're paying Addison Lee prices.

Alternatively, if she is confident enough in her ability to homeschool one, why not homeschool both and get out of everyone's faces with this?

I've heard of parents who have children with a large enough age gap between them that they have to do a drop off at two different schools, and parents who set up a car pool at their school to share the driving between eachother.

Why did she not consider getting involved in an existing carpool, or offering to set one up? (that would probably be quite popular as it would benefit several parents).

The children are eight years old, she seems to have moved house to get them into a school without first finding any of this information out, or what her chances would realisticaly be of getting them in. It sure isn't worth a massive damn mortgage.

Perhaps there is a pool already, but she isn't very popular so was not invited to take part. Actualy I wouldn't be suprised if she wasn't one of those constantly complaining parents if she is the the type to also take her complaints to the papers.

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"Now get those trousers off before someone dies!"

Having looked at the story on the local newspapers web site it looks as though they didn't move to their current home until October so the mother will have applied after the current school year had already started. Getting pupils into a school once a new school year has already started can often be difficult because places will have already been allocated months earlier so there is less room for flexibility. There doesn't actually seem to be a proper explanation given of why one of the boys was given preference over the other.

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www.newshuddlines.blogspot.com

So why the DM sadface story?

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Sick Left-wing Zealot.

Like most sad face stories it looks like it has been lifted word for word from a local newspaper. I'm just wondering why he mentions in the story that he often shakes his car mats in public but will be more careful in future. On the day he was caught did he just throw away the cigarette butt or did he shake is mat to deposit other rubbish in the car park. If he is a non-smoker where did he get the cigarette butt from that he is holding in the picture?

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www.newshuddlines.blogspot.com

At first sight of that photo I didn't realise that that was his hand and thought he was flashing his paunch at us.

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Sick Left-wing Zealot.