#Education
Target:
London Borough of Hounslow
Region:
England

Local parents continue to be concerned about the recent allocation of places in mixed secondary community schools. Many have been in contact with local councillors and L B Hounslow Education department regarding what they see as discrimination against applicants from the Brentford area. They say the strict reliance upon the distance criteria from home to the nearest mixed secondary school (e.g. Chiswick Community School) effectively rules out their chances of a successful application.

Following several parent meetings a petition has now been launched to focus the council’s attention on this issue prior to the meeting of the council’s executive on 6th April to fix the policy for 2011 onwards. Parents are particularly concerned that given the rise in Brentford’s population the situation will escalate and in the near future few Brentford children will have any choice in being educated locally.

We, the undersigned, as parents, carers and members of the Brentford community, petition the London Borough of Hounslow Schools Admissions Executive to amend their secondary schools admissions policy to cease the discrimination against children from Brentford and its surrounding areas.

As there are no mixed secondary schools in the Brentford district and because of the strict application of the distance criteria used to determine admissions, any applicant from Brentford is disadvantaged by their geographical location. We therefore request the Executive to rectify this situation by recommending that:

1. A special case be made for children in Brentford applying to mixed community schools so that they are admitted into the local school of their choice on appeal
for intake September 2010.

2. For future years, the admissions policy be amended in terms of distance criteria. These must be revised so that all applicants from the Brentford area are no longer excluded from their nearest local mixed community school because of distance.

3. Thereafter a new mixed community school is built or existing schools extended so that Brentford children can be educated in or very near to Brentford.

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The Stop Discrimination against Brentford Children in Secondary School Admissions petition to London Borough of Hounslow was written by Kath Richardson and is in the category Education at GoPetition.