Starting secondary school is always a big step, but the move is even harder when children don’t get into their first choice school with all their primary friends. When Justine Jenkins sent her son Aiden to Tywyn Primary in Neath Port Talbot aged three, she understood it was a feeder school for nearby Ysgol Bae Baglan.
Justine’s two older daughters Hope and Abigail moved on from Tywyn Primary to Ysgol Bae Baglan and she said she was never aware that the rules meant you had to live in catchment. So she was shocked and upset when Aiden, 11, was turned down for a place when they applied earlier this year.
Now the schoolboy, who lives in Cwmafan, will go to Ysgol Cwm Brombi l in September while all his friends from primary transfer to Ysgol Bae Baglan.
