Mum having to drive children two hours and 100 miles to school

A mum-of-two has been forced to travel for more than two hours and 100 miles to take her children to school - with no places available nearby. Michelle Thomas, 36, and her two children, Jacob, four and Thomas, eight, were forced to up sticks following an eviction from their home of eight years last summer.

Desperately searching for a new home, Michelle's best option was a shared-ownership house in Corby, Northamptonshire - 103 miles north of their previous home in Woking, Surrey. After months of paperwork, the family eventually moved in but Michelle was left "shocked" after discovering that there were no school places available in any of the 16 primary schools in Corby.

Instead, Michelle was offered a school five miles away in neighbouring Kettering - without an after-school club - a move that would mean her needing to find a new job. She was later told that a space had become available at one of her chosen schools for Jacob, but not Thomas, leaving her in a "terrible situation."

A "stressed" Michelle decided to lodge an appeal with The Diocese of Peterborough - the governing body of her two preferred schools - with an outcome due on 20 May. In the meantime - with Jacob and Thomas still registered at their old school - she has been forced to drive the two hours back to Woking every week, staying with friends, before driving back to Corby with her children at the weekend.

Michelle, a bank worker, said: "I feel there's light at the end of the tunnel but it's just really stressful at the moment. We have to leave about 6:30am to get back to Woking for about 8:30 and drive home at the weekend - it's very difficult.

"I was told 'everybody is moving to Corby so there isn't space in schools'. The council isn't going to build any more schools but there are so many new-build houses - so that's the problem.

"I honestly must have been in a dream world - I thought we were going to get this cheap house, keep our dog, and no one can evict us and do what we want. And I just assumed that the local schools are going to accommodate the new builds in the town. I just never thought that they would say 'we're full.'

"I didn't even think the schools a mile or two away would be full as well. The school I've been offered is not even in the same borough - five miles away in Kettering."

Michelle was evicted from her home of eight years after the landlord decided to sell. She said: "I didn't want to do the move. I only had to do this after not being able to find a rental in Surrey. No one accepts a single mother with universal credit.

"I got the eviction notice in June and by August I'd registered for this plot in Northamptonshire in this new development in Corby - the shared-ownership property process took just over six months. Thankfully, the landlord agreed to extend my notice until we could move. We officially moved out in March.

"The closest, cheapest I could find was Corby. It had to be shared ownership for me. This was the best way we could keep the family together."

Shortly after moving in, Michelle was told that there were no schools available in the whole of Corby. She said: "They told me on the 27th March that there were no schools in Corby.

"The trouble about the one five miles away is that it's a village school so there's no parking on site and it doesn't have any wrap-around care like an after-school club so I'd have to change my job and it'd be very difficult. But the other day I had a call from admissions saying they had space for one of the kids at our preferred school within walking distance, but not the other child. That's put me in a terrible situation.

"Apparently the reason is because the year three class is a baby-boom year. I was told no there are no year three places in the whole of Corby."

Michelle says she is concerned about Jacob and Thomas being able to make friends with their current options. She said: "The idea is the kids would make local friends but how are they going to do that if their friends are five miles away?

"It's really put a spanner in the works."

A spokesperson for the The Diocese of Peterborough said: "The Diocese of Peterborough is not the admissions authority for any school or academy, but we can share with you that The Diocese of Peterborough does operate an appeals service adhering to the School Admission Appeals Code, which some schools who are their own admissions authority choose to buy into."