A NUMBER of children in the county are without school places due to a large number of applications submitted.

Oxfordshire County Council has said it has dealt with 2,400 in-year transfer request this summer and admissions officers are looking at a number of unresolved applications.

Children moving between schools in Oxfordshire and from outside of the county have to apply for a new school by submitting a transfer request.

Poppy Sale, 13, from Ditchley near Woodstock has been home-schooled since the age of five and along with her family decided this summer she wanted to join a secondary school but was told there were no places at her preferred Marlborough School in Woodstock.

Her mother Kim Fazackerley-Sale, 41, said: “We have been advised to put Poppy on the continued interest waiting list for the school, she wants to be put on it but I don’t want her starting halfway through the school year.”

Oxfordshire County Council spokesman, Owen Morton said: “Our advice to any family whose child already has a place at a school, but who would like them to transfer to different one, would always be for them to continue to send their child to their allocated school, as it is a legal requirement for children to receive education.

“We are working with the families and with schools to resolve each individual situation as soon as possible.”

The county council would not provide figures of unresolved applications because it would disrupt the admissions officers working to get the issue resolved.

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