A Co Tyrone family has had sleepless nights as their child has been left without a school place just weeks before the new school term.
Levi Bogle is due to make the move to secondary school in September, but despite his mum Cheryl saying his application forms were submitted in February, he is still without a place.
Cheryl wants to send Levi to Strabane Academy where his brothers currently attend, but is unhappy about the lack of communication received from the Education Authority.
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She told Belfast Live it was a ‘very stressful’ time for the family, particularly for her son who faces uncertainty in the weeks ahead of a potential move to secondary school.
“This has been a very stressful situation for both Levi and myself, it’s the sad look on his wee face when anyone asks what big school are you going to,” Cheryl said.
“He says ‘I don’t know I haven’t got one yet’. It’s so hard not being able to plan ahead and prepare him for what’s next. There's been loads of sleepless nights and tears over this.
“We applied to the Education Authority in February for a school place in Strabane Academy as his brothers are already at the same school.
“Levi has some additional needs so this is the smaller and best choice of school for him in Strabane
“When everyone else got their places we thought ours were sent in the post rather than online so might take bit longer. After two weeks I rang only to be told they didn’t receive anything for him, but never contacted me or his primary school to say this.
“Someone rang me back later that day to say I would need to send the forms again but his school of choice has met its intake and was therefore full. I only gave one choice and sent the forms back in again after talking to staff of the school.
“This was the start of July or the end of June. I rang every week since to be told hopefully you should hear by next week, but it was the same the next week and the week after that.”
Cheryl said she appreciates it may be the holiday period but wants answers as to whether Levi will have a place for the new term.
“I fully understand it’s over the holidays but it’s still not good enough. We are now two or three weeks away from them going back and as they are full I don't even know if they will take him in or not.
“I can’t apply for his uniform grant or anything due to no place being given so if he gets one now even in the next week or two I’ll have to wait up to four weeks for any financial help to be able to send him.”
A spokesperson for the Education Authority said it only facilitated the school admissions process and could not allocate places to individual schools.
“We appreciate that this is a difficult time for the family and we have been in touch with them to offer support and guidance," the spokesperson said.
“Unfortunately we do not have the ability to offer or allocate school places. This decision rests with each individual school. Our role in the Admissions process is to ensure that parents have the ability to list their school preferences and we facilitate the administrative process that enables schools to make decisions based on their admissions criteria which are unique to each school, and are set by the Board of Governors."
Belfast Live contacted Strabane Academy in order to get a response to this story., but at the time of publication was yet to receive a response.
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