Mum's fury as daughter, 11, without a school place for next week

As September dawns, children and parents are frantically preparing for a new school year.

But for Stockport-based Sarah Dyer, and her daughter Alicia, next week's new beginnings have turned into a nightmare. Alicia, 11, should be making the leap from primary to secondary school on Monday. Yet she has been left 'heartbroken' as she was not given a place at any local schools, and now has no school to go to next week.

Sarah, whose husband is in the army, told the Manchester Evening News it was 'ludicrous' that she had been unable to get Alicia into a local school for September. Stockport Council said every applicant received an offer this year.

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Alicia had hoped to go to Stockport School. But the 11-year-old was initially assigned a place at Werneth School, where Sarah she would have to take a 'substantial walk' to get to a public bus to take her there and back each day. Because of this and what Sarah described as 'worrying' Ofsted reports about the school, she decided to decline the place and appeal for a school closer to the family's Offerton home.

The 11-year-old was placed on waiting lists at Bramhall School, Harrytown School, where her sister is a pupil, and Marple Hall School, which is a 'feeder school' from Alicia's primary. But despite waiting for weeks, she still has yet to be offered a place anywhere.

Now the school term is due to start on Monday, and Sarah said her daughter will be forced to watch her friends start a new school together without her.

"I just feel like I've got nowhere to turn," Sarah said. "I'm not asking for one specific school - there are several local ones I'm happy for her to go to.

"It's just ludicrous