Disabled Bristol girl left without school place for almost a year

Mum Zoe says Olive does not yet have a secondary school place for September

A woman has said she feels "numb" as her daughter has been left without a secondary school place for almost a year.

Zoe, 44, from Horfield in Bristol, wants to see more specialist school provision as her 12-year-old daughter has been let down by countless schools.

After having "no option" since June, Olive has finally been given a school place but may have to wait until May.

Bristol City Council has been approached for comment.

Zoe said the "perpetual summer holiday" felt like "disability discrimination" and she was "stubbornly" refusing to let it affect Olive's future.

Olive was born prematurely at 26 weeks in a traumatic delivery which led to cerebral palsy and sight issues, Zoe said.

She had been attending Filton Avenue Primary School for three days a week and spending two days at Peopleton Brook Farm in Chipping Sodbury, an alternative learning provider, before trying to find a secondary school place.

Zoe, who is a self-employed interior designer and single mother, said: "The deadline for getting Olive a secondary school was mid-February last year and that was missed."

Since the last week of September Olive has been attending new alternative learning provider (ALP), Education First, for four mornings a week.

A recent mix-up meant Olive was briefly left with no provision at all after Education First realised it could not be her sole provider.

Zoe said: "I have made a complaint to the council and the ALP they should have realised and managed that situation."

In January of this year at a tribunal hearing, Olive's Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) was amended and a school place found for her.

'Limbo'

Bristol City Council was ordered to name Grace Garden School in Westbury-on-Trym for Olive but the family have been told she may only be able to start in May when timetables have been changed and staff recruitment finished.

Zoe said: "My next step is judicial review to compel the council or the school to admit Olive sooner but I am aware they are all talking to each other behind the scenes.

"I just have not felt any kind of elation or joy at finally being awarded the school place - I haven't felt like celebrating it in the slightest even though the school is amazing.

"I think this basically some kind of trauma response, I'm just numb."

She added that further months of waiting in "limbo" would be the hardest.

"I've been holding it together for a really long time, knowing it's almost done but knowing that even after taking legal action were still finding obstacle after obstacle.

"I'm feeling pretty angry, I'm being polite, I've been a ball of simmering rage for so long and its definitely affected my health."

Zoe said her work had been a struggle while trying to find her daughter a school

She said working as an interior designer had been "absolutely horrendous" and that if she had staff she would have had to liquidate her business by now.

"I've had to borrow thousands just to stay in business and to make sure I can pay my mortgage,"she said.

"It's a sheer stubborn refusal to not let this affect mine and Olive's future, it would have been much easier if I could have just given up work when this was going on."

She added that Olive is confused and asking why so many schools are rejecting her.

"I want to shed light on this, because I think most people would be horrified if they only knew what was happening, it's a bit like disability discrimination ultimately.

"It's this invisible, insidious, systemic situation but no-one can see it, you don't see people tipping people out of wheelchairs but it's a kind of invisibility and repression of the reality," she said.

Bristol City Council has been approached for comment.