Mum rejects school 27 miles away amid safety fears

A mother has spoken out about her safety fears for her 11-year-old daughter after she was offered a school place in Faversham - 27 miles away from her home on Sheppey.

Families on the island have said they have been offered schools in Faversham because local schools are oversubscribed.

Lee-Anne Moore, a Conservative Swale Borough councillor, has home-schooled her daughter, Lilian, after she was offered the Year 7 place last September and described it as "devastating".

She said Kent County Council (KCC) was not helping families or talking to schools. KCC said secondary school provision on Sheppey remained a priority.

Moore said her daughter had faced "almost an impossible journey, with no designated school bus to Faversham".

Speaking to BBC Radio Kent, she said it would have meant a 05:30 start for an 11-year-old travelling to Faversham by public transport.

"I couldn't live with myself if anything happened to her," she said. "It's not like I could easily get to her. It's a 40-minute drive, maybe even up to an hour in rush-hour traffic. It's not practical to send a child at 11 years old that far away."

"She's missing out on the social side of things," she said. "She's not mixing with her own peers and it's devastating."

She said she could not risk her daughter's safety.

Moore said 10 families were in the same situation.

Provision on Sheppey changed after the island's Oasis Academy was rated inadequate by Ofsted in 2022, and the Oasis campus was replaced and split into two new schools, Leigh Academy Minster and EKC Secondary in Sheerness.

Leigh Academies Trust said it had admitted an extra 30 Year 7 pupils in each of the past two years.

A statement by the trust said: "We will continue to carefully balance our commitments to our existing students and the needs of the wider Sheppey community."

Swale Labour councillor Dolley Wooster said school places "shouldn't be a lottery", adding: "KCC is skirting its accountability here and should take its safeguarding responsibility to pupils seriously."

A KCC spokesperson said: "We have worked closely with Leigh Academies Trust to create additional Year 7 places at Leigh Academy Minster for this September, helping more children attend a local school on the Island."

"While KCC is responsible for ensuring there are sufficient school places overall, it is important to note that academies are their own admissions authorities and are responsible for setting their admissions arrangements and admission numbers."

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