A father has paid tribute to the Telegraph & Argus, after his son was admitted to the school that had earlier turned him away.

Neville Evans, of Eccleshill, had been threatening legal action after his 13-year-old son, John, was sent home from his induction day at the Immanuel Church of England Community College in Thackley.

Staff said he was not on their list even though the Evans had been sent a letter offering him a place and had already spent £120 on a uniform. They had even been invited to an open day over the summer.

Mr Evans said he had been getting nowhere with his negotiations with Bradford Council and the school until the T&A became involved. Now the school has said that they have managed to find a place for John.

"This is all we wanted all along," said Mr Evans. "I would just like to say thank you to the T&A as nothing was happening at all until it took up our case."

Immanuel head teacher, Tim Cloke, said: "In the best interests of John's education we have given him a place. We have had to conduct a delicate balancing act taking into account all the other parents who want their children to come here.

"But there was an administrative error by the local education authority and we have gone out of our to find a solution to this problem."

Elaine Evans said her son's first choice had originally been Hanson School with Immanuel his second. But Bradford Council had written to say that he had failed to get into Hanson and that there was a place at Immanuel -- which was accepted.

Later Hanson School telephoned to say there was a place after all because someone had dropped out. The school claims this was verbally accepted by Mrs Evans, but she says she told them she would have to speak to her son first.

By this time John had his heart set on Immanuel and the Evans wrote back to Hanson School declining the offer of a place, a fact that Hanson head teacher, Tony Thorne has confirmed.

"John and his family were offered a place at Hanson," he said. "But his mother wrote to say that he didn't want the place. As we understand it John is no longer interested in coming to our school."

The Evans assumed that everything had been sorted out and that John would be going to the Thackley school. Mrs Evans said she even attended an open evening at the school's invitation.

But in the meantime Immanuel head teacher, Tim Cloke, said he had received a letter from Bradford Council saying that John should be removed from the Immanuel list because he was now going to Hanson. This was why the teenager had been turned away last week, he said.

Bradford education authority assistant director, Dennis Williams said: "The information we had was that John would be attending Hanson and we therefore removed him from Immanuel's list.

"Unfortunately at no stage were we informed that Mr and Mrs Evans no longer wanted the place at Hanson. We apologise for the misunderstanding."