Governor sorry for admissions ‘distress’

4:25am Tuesday 15th April 2008

The right of Addingham and Burley Woodhead children to attend Ilkley Grammar School is being hit by a decision made by education bosses four years ago, says a governor.

Chairman of the school's governing body, Rosalind Beeson, says a change of admissions policy by Education Bradford in 2004 effectively removed Addingham children's guaranteed right to a place.

Mrs Beeson wrote to Addingham parents confirming that all the Year Six children recently told they were instead being sent to a failing Keighley School had now successful gained sought-after places at Ilkley Grammar.

She apologised for the "great distress" suffered by these families, but warned that she cannot rule out a similar struggle for Addingham children in years to come.

An increasingly population of families in Ilkley itself has been blamed for the schools place crisis, leading, for the first time, to children in outlying parts of the priority catchment area initially missing out on places.

Mrs Beeson says Education Bradford changed the rules in recent years - something that parents caught up in the recent school places wrangle have been trying to investigate Mrs Beeson promised that she and Ilkley Grammar head teacher, Gillian James, are continuing to explore all options for addressing the problem.

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