Around 70 parents attended the meeting about school places in the Alban Arena on Monday night. Parents were able to give vent to their frustrations with the system direct to county council officials. Various key themes emerged, including:
– Concern about the performance of some local secondary schools
– Concern over the continuing interest list (and particularly whether t was appropriate for someone who had got a place allocated to them to continue to have priority on the list over those who had received none of their ranked applications)
– Concern over specific operations of the siblings rule (and whether it was fair for parents who had moved to continue to benefit from the operations of the siblings rule)
– Concern of the effect of distance criteria on those in villages.
I hope that the county council will make available a full set of minutes in due course.

In the meantime I have asked the Administration to ensure that the meet with SABLE, the organisation which expresses concerns over the lack of primary school places.