A MOTHER says she is appalled after being told her two eldest children cannot attend the school in her village - despite living just yards away from it.

Anthony Bond

A MOTHER says she is appalled after being told her two eldest children cannot attend the school in her village - despite living just yards away from it.

Anita Grinham, 33, moved to Tattingstone, near Ipswich, last month and expected that her two oldest boys, Cameron, 10, and Samuel, 7, would be able to attend the village primary school.

But despite the school being just a two-minute walk from her house, she has been told that her sons will have to travel almost two miles to Bentley Primary School or keep their previous place at Chelmondiston, over eight miles away.

“I think it is absolutely disgusting and appalling that my children are being told to go to a school elsewhere when we live across the road from a school,” said single mother Miss Grinham.

“I cannot afford to take my kids to Bentley or Chelmondiston and what the local authority is asking is impossible. We are on the breadline as it is and I cannot put them in more poverty than they already are.

“I think it is very frustrating and a joke that I am having this argument just to take my kids to the school across the road.”

Both Cameron and Samuel are now at home and out of school as Miss Grinham, who also has two other young sons, refuses to send them elsewhere.

“I have been told that I will get into trouble if I do not get my kids in school but I have said to them 'how am I going to get my kids to school?'

“I do not want to get into trouble but I have explained the situation to them and it just seems that it is a stalemate. I cannot afford buses or taxis and I do not drive at the moment. There are no pathways to Bentley, just country lanes, so there is no way I can get them there.

“I am supposed to miraculously find this money for travel expenses. It is my kids' future that they are messing with.”

A spokesman for Suffolk County Council said: “Unfortunately it has not been possible to offer places at Tattingstone CEVC Primary School for Cameron and Samuel. This is because both year groups are full.

“We have offered places at Bentley CEVC Primary School, the next nearest school with places available. We have informed Miss Grinham that she can appeal against this decision.

“As Bentley school is less than two miles from the Grinham's home the county council is not responsible for providing school transport, however we have advised Miss Grinham to contact our school transport team if she has any issues regarding transport or the safety of the route that her children will be taking between Tattingstone and Bentley".