Dozens of pupils are still at home as furious parents refuse to send them to 'dumping ground' school

While most pupils are now back at school, a group of youngsters are still at home amid a row over school places.

The children's parents, angry with the high school school places they have been offered, are refusing to accept them and are calling on the council to find an alternative.

They all live around the Wythenshawe, M22/M23 area, and applied for various schools for their Year 7 kids, including Sale High, Altrincham College and Blessed Thomas Holford Catholic College, which all fall under Trafford Council.

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In previous years they say there's never been a problem getting places at such schools, as despite them being under a different local authority, they are closer to those than many Manchester schools.

Among them is Angela Davies whose daughter Maisie went to Lime Tree Primary in Sale and said there 'was never any indication there would be an issue going from a Trafford primary to a high school'.

However she, along with up to 40 others from the same area - some with siblings attending secondaries in Trafford - have been offered places at Manchester Academy High in Moss Side.

The families say that not only is it unreasonable to expect their children to travel so far - around five miles away - but they have 'serious safeguarding concerns' about the school, where a 14-year-old pupil was stabbed in the neck during an exam last December.

Angela, from Baguley, said: "We attended all the open evenings for Trafford schools and picked our top three - Altrincham College, Sale High and Wellington School. I thought if we don't get those, we'll presumably get a local school closer to home, but then we were offered