A Mother has been given advice about educating her child at home after she failed to get a place at her local primary school.
Eyla Ali, a single mum of The Mall, Southgate, is among a group of parents who have formed South West Enfield Action Team, which is
campaigning for an increase in primary school provision in the south-west of the borough.
She feels frustrated after missing out on a place for her four-year-old daughter Lara at Walker Primary School, which is located just a few
hundred metres up the road from their home, in The Green, Waterfall Road.
“The way it works is that special needs children get priority, then siblings of pupils at the school and finally the distance to the school counts – apparently I don’t live close enough,” said the 35-year-old, who also failed to get Lara into Eversley Primary School, in Chaseville Park Road, Winchmore Hill.
“It is ridiculous,” she told the Advertiser. “I want my daughter to go to a local school.”
After she was offered and refused a place at Garfield Primary School, in Springfield Road, New Southgate, Ms Ali was sent an information pack from Enfield Council about educating her daughter at home. “It’s not an option,” she added. “I’d have to quit my job to do that.”
The council, which last year embarked on a primary school expansion programme aimed at providing an additional 1,680 places by 2017/18, said all parents who applied on time were offered primary school places for their children in April.
The new school year begins this week and there are currently 90 children whose parents or carers have not yet accepted the places they
were allocated.
Gonul Daniels, of Bourne Hill, a mother of two-year-old twins, who heads the campaign, said: “Members of our group live close to schools but have to go to as far as Edmonton because there are not enough places.
“There is a black hole in this area. We believe that Walker should be expanded and we support the early proposals for a new school in Grovelands Park.”
The number of oversubscribed primary schools in the borough this year is 24.
Marie Garside, acting headteacher at Walker Primary School, said: “Every year we have people who are left disappointed, but we have only 60 reception places and they are allocated fairly by the council’s admissions service.”
The council also confirmed that there are currently 11 children due to start secondary school this week whose parents had not yet accepted a place.
Enfield Today