AN angry mother is threatening to keep her son at home when the new school term starts.

Mrs Victoria Hughes (33) is furious that her son Robert, aged 11, has been denied a place at Parrenthorn High School when children from outside the borough have got places.

"He has just finished at Park View County Primary School in Prestwich. He went there because at the time we were going to move to the town," explained Mrs Hughes, who lives in Radcliffe. Her other two children also attend Park View.

But education bosses have decreed that Robert lives too far away from Parrenthorn to merit a place.

Instead he has been offered a place at Coney Green High School in Radcliffe.

"I really feel that my son has been very badly done to," said Mrs Hughes. "I know for a fact that there are children from Blackley and other areas outside the borough who have got in at Parrenthorn.

"All Robert's school friends are going to Parrenthorn. He won't know anyone at Coney Green. Even his friend from home goes to St Monica's in Prestwich."

Parents and classmates at Park View signed a petition in support of Robert, but Mrs Hughes has already failed in a verbal appeal to Bury's Education Appeals Board.

"Our only hope now is another verbal appeal to try to get him in at Prestwich High or Philips High. I don't want him going to Coney Green as I don't believe it can supply the education he needs. I work and am dependent on my mother and mother-in-law, who both live in Prestwich, to collect Robert from school."

"Robert is very upset because he doesn't know where he's going. He had his heart set on going to Parrenthorn and he cried for 24 hours when he found out that he hadn't got a place. He was absolutely distraught."

Mrs Hughes said that if Robert does not get offered a place at Philips or Prestwich, she will refuse to send him to school.

But a spokesman for Bury's education department pointed out that by law the authority had to treat every application for a school place equally and could not discriminate on the grounds of enforced residence within the borough.

He said: "Children who live in the catchment area of a particular school and express that school as a first preference have priority. This means that, although a child may live outside the borough, he may live closer to the school than a child within the borough."

With regards to Robert's plight he said: "We cannot comment on individual cases."

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.