Cambridgeshire school children sent miles out of catchment - parents

Parents say some children are facing long journeys because a city's secondary schools are full.

One parent said his son, who expected to go to Chesterton in Cambridge, has been placed 13 miles away in St Ives.

A new school planned for north-west Cambridge could be delayed further because of planning appeals by the Environment Agency.

The trust that runs Chesterton said its planning had been based on the new school opening.

Cambridge is expanding and while primary school places have mostly kept pace with housing growth, the same has not been true of secondary schools.

When children received their secondary school offers on 1 March Cambridgeshire County Council documents showed that every secondary in Cambridge was full, with many taking on additional students.

Across the whole of Cambridgeshire, only five schools were listed as having spaces left for Year 7 pupils.

The situation for children living within the catchment area of Chesterton Community College is particularly difficult. Last year the school took 56 additional children above its published admission number (PAN) of 180 for its current Year 7 cohort.

Emily's daughter Genevieve is in the final year of primary school and they live half a mile from Chesterton Community College, well within its catchment.

However, despite putting the school down as their first choice for next year, and putting other nearby schools as their second and third choices, they were placed at Coleridge Community College on the other side of the city.

The journey by foot would take about 50 minutes and they said there was not a safe cycle route.

Emily said her daughter was "really upset".

"She's by no means the only person in her class who's been affected by this. A lot of children have been sent all over Cambridge, and indeed all over Cambridgeshire."

A significant house-building programme is taking place in north-west Cambridge, including Darwin Green and the development at Eddington, which is primarily for Cambridge University staff and their families.

A new secondary school is proposed for Darwin Green. It is due to be built in the phase 2 development. However, planning permission for that phase is currently subject to an appeal by the Environment Agency over concerns around water security.

The Meridian Trust, which is the sponsor of the new school, said it expected it to open in September 2026. They already run a number of other schools in the region.

Its chief executive Mark Woods said the trust was "aware there are a number of challenges with school places in the local area" and they "continue to work closely with Cambridgeshire County Council to support them with this where we can".

Most schools in Cambridge will be taking on extra pupils this year. However some children feel they are missing out.

Alexis lives in Eddington and his son Sam attends the local primary school. Despite putting local schools on their choices form he has been allocated a place 13 miles away in St Ives.

His dad says the council has told him it will provide a taxi for transport. However he thinks this will cost the authority "thousands of pounds" each year.

One of his local councillors, Antoinette Nestor, has been trying to support some of the families. She says there are 111 children in Cambridgeshire who have not been given a place at any of their three choices of secondary school.

She wrote to the Department for Education (DfE) asking for information about why council money, which the local authority said was intended for 11-16 education at Chesterton Community College, appeared to have been used to fund a new sixth form centre at the school.

The council told the BBC this "effectively took that 11-16 capacity away" and "has directly affected the number of children living in catchment who have been allocated a place at Chesterton".

However the Eastern Learning Alliance, which runs Chesterton, says this is not true.

In a statement it said: "The sixth form was agreed by the DfE to serve young people in the local community at that point and in the future. This decision was predicated on place planning data collated at local authority [county council] level, which included the delivery of Darwin Green secondary school.

"This data showed that additional sixth form places were required (and continue to be), and Year 7 places were not.

"It continues to be the case that there has been no growth in student numbers in the Year 6 cohorts at our feeder primary schools: all students in our feeder primary schools have been offered a place at Chesterton.

"Going forward we know that the planned opening of Darwin Green secondary continues to be the overall solution to the current issues with place planning locally."

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