Father calls for Barnet school admissions changes after months-long search

Huseyin Mehmet said his son "wakes up in the middle of the night crying" because of the situation

A father wants changes to school admissions after he says a London council failed to offer any suitable places for his 11-year-old son.

Huseyin Mehmet, 46, said the family has been through months of wrangling with Barnet Council after their initial six school choices were rejected.

Soulaymane was allotted schools Mr Mehmet says are too hard to travel to or have an inflexible religious ethos.

The council said the school places were properly allocated.

A spokesperson said: "Of the schools listed on the parent's preference form, all were heavily oversubscribed, and all available places were correctly allocated following each school's published admission arrangements."

Mr Mehmet said the ongoing stress was "taking a toll" on their son and it was "worrying" the family.

"He can't go to sleep at night... he wakes up in the middle of the night crying," he said.

Mr Mehmet, a plumber, said the family applied in the usual way for six preferred schools near them, but "every single one was rejected on the basis other kids had priority".

He said Barnet Council then gave them a list of four further choices, but he explained his wife wouldn't be able to get him to school as she takes their younger son on two buses to get him to his school.

Mr Mehmet says some of the routes to the suggested schools would not be safe for his son Soulaymane

Barnet Council said the four schools allocated to Soulaymane were all rated as "good" or "outstanding" by Ofsted, and two were within walking distance from their home - but Mr Mehmet said the route to one was isolated and "dark" during the winter so would not be safe for his child, who has never been outside unaccompanied.

The closest school suggested by the council is a St Andrew the Apostle, a Greek Orthodox school.

Although the family is Muslim and Turkish-Cypriot, Mr Mehmet said he was not opposed to his son attending the school but claimed when he asked its admissions team whether they would allow his son to be absent from the religious assemblies, they said "it's not possible... they were very strict and very blunt".

However, Philip Hills, head teacher at St Andrew the Apostle, said: "Neither I, nor the previous head, have received any complaint or indeed any concern relating to a parental request to withdraw a child from Religious Education, an assembly, form time or a church service.

"We fully recognise that parents have the right to withdraw their children from RE and collective worship. We would be happy to discuss this matter further with this or any other family."

Mr Mehmet said they would "do anything" for their son and "have left no stone unturned"

As it stands, Soulaymane is 77th on the waiting list for places at the schools Mr and Mrs Mehmet wanted. Mr Mehmet said he calls and emails the council "every day" but thinks they have decided "we're making a preference".

In the meantime, they have kept their son out of school since September, after getting approval for home schooling.

Mr Mehmet said he would "do anything for my son to help him continue his education" and added his wife had started driving lessons so she could take him to school in the future.

Despite this, the family feel they are in a situation "where we can't provide the right school for our child. We haven't left any stone unturned. We feel very isolated and restricted".

Dr Hills told the BBC that around half of the pupils at St Andrew the Apostle come from Christian families "but at the same time we embrace a rich diversity of families and religious cultures including Islam, Hinduism, Judaism and Buddhism".

"Over 6% of our families are Muslim and we have found that Muslim families value our culture of high aspirations and high standards of conduct for all students," he added.

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