A MOTHER has threatened to keep her son at home after he was allocated a place at a high school 14 miles away - despite the fact that he lives just two streets away from Prince Henry's Grammar School in Otley.

Marie Thornhill said that 11-year-old Arron should go to Prince Henry's - but has been given a place at City of Leeds High School in Woodhouse, on the outskirts of Leeds city centre, instead.

Now the single mother of two has said she will refuse to send Arron, who currently attends Thomas Chippendale Primary, to the school and will look at other means of educating him.

She is also about to start a petition to add weight to her case, and she claims many of her neighbours and friends are keen to support her.

Mrs Thornhill of Weston Lane, said: "If Arron is not going to the grammar school, he is not going to one at all. Why should he go to Leeds when he has lived here all his life? We are an Otley family and he's lived in Otley all his life so in my book he deserves an Otley school.

"People are coming in from Bramhope and all over to get to Prince Henry's, yet someone within a stone's throw cannot get a place. It's disgusting. Places at the nearest school should be automatic.

"It's not safe for him to travel all that distance by himself."

An education spokesman said: "We sympathise with the concerns expressed by Marie Thornhill, but believe she must accept responsibility for Arron's current plight.

"The application form for entry into secondary school was handed in late, despite reminders by staff at Thomas Chippendale.

"Nor did Mrs Thornhill make a secondary preference choice for Arron, even though she was strongly encouraged to do so in the guidance we issue parents. City of Leeds school was the nearest alternative school with vacancies.

"We are satisfied we have acted properly in this matter and to make an exception for Arron would be unfair for other parents in similar circumstances."

But Mrs Thornhill claimed she had never had any reminders from Thomas Chippendale School and that her application form was submitted one day before the deadline. She said she did not put any other schools on the form because there were no others in Otley.

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