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As a record number of children in Kent received their first choice primary school, one mother was left in disbelief after being given one, which isn’t even built yet, five miles from her home.
In total, 32 primaries are closer to Laura Procter’s Vinters Park house than Langley Park, where daughter Amelia was allocated.
The four-year-old missed out on a place at the family’s first choice East Borough – 0.61 miles away – by just 20 yards.
Miss Procter, of Newenden Close, said: “There are four schools in a mile radius, three of which were my choices yet I was given one which is on the other side of Maidstone.
“Kent County Council doesn’t give reasons for its decisions. I have put an appeal in and she’s on the waiting list at East Borough. It’s like I’m in a black hole. I know people on the estate in the same position.”
She added, as a working single mother who does not have a car, she will need to take two buses and walk from Park Wood to get Amelia to school.
She also applied for places at St Paul’s, Hillary Road, which is 0.79 miles from her home and Sandling, which is 0.81 miles away in Ashburnham Road.
Langley Park is 3.3 miles from her home and 5.2 miles by road. It is due to open in September and will take on 60 pupils while the estate itself is still under construction.
The 28-year-old insurance worker added: “The school isn’t built yet. She’ll be a tester child and will likely be in a mobile classroom at a school with no Ofsted report on a building site.
“The reason I live in Vinters is the four good schools in the area. I cannot believe I have instead got one which doesn’t even exist.”
Amelia currently attends Trinity Pre-School, which is next to East Borough in Vinters Road.
A KCC spokesman said if a child is not given any of their preferences they are allocated a place at the nearest school with place, adding every parent has a right to appeal and join waiting lists.