Minister 'sympathetic' to mum's school place fight

The schools minister was "sympathetic" to the plight of a mother with incurable cancer who was refused her first choice school for her four-year-old daughter.

Christine Lote from Stoke Gifford was told by South Gloucestershire Council that it did not take a family member's health in to consideration when allocating school places. She is now calling for a rule change.

Mrs Lote had to have a leg amputated as part of her treatment and so wanted her daughter Sophie to go to the nearest infant's school from their home.

She has now had a meeting with the schools minister Georgia Gould, and said the minister "promised" to take their story back.

"I feel like it was a positive opportunity to put forward mine and (daughter) Sophie's story… and I hope she will do as she's promised to take our story back and try to amend things on a national level," Mrs Lote added.

"I appealed the council's decision with a view to getting Sophie to the right setting for her, it's now snowballed to potentially becoming a national campaign."

Some other local authorities, including Wiltshire Council, do take in to account a family member's illness when deciding which school a child can attend.

Mrs Lote's local MP, Labour's Claire Hazelgrove, asked the Department for Education to explore what more could be done to help.

She also attended the meeting with the minister and said it was encouraging.

"She was very much sympathetic and was hearing loudly and clearly that this is something we would all like to see changed, it's just a case of how could we do that," Ms Hazelgrove said.

South Gloucestershire Council has said after Christine Lote's case it will consult on changing its admissions criteria, but co-leader of the council, Ian Boulton says it will take some time.

"It's a legal process, we have to go through to make changes, we have to follow that or we could face legal challenges from other parents, otherwise we'd have done it immediately," he said.

He added that he hoped the rules could be changed nationally.

The Department for Education has not responded to requests for a comment.