HUNDREDS of parents are choosing to send their children to a Cheshire high school miles away from their Trafford homes.
Although Trafford is the top performer in Greater Manchester for GCSE results, the M.E.N. has discovered that parents are choosing to send their children to Knutsford High School.
Ten buses - organised by parents - pick up 530 pupils from stops across the borough every day. Dozens more students are believed to make their own way to the 1,600-pupil school.
Parent Diane Grimshaw says a significant number of parents are opting for Knutsford because they are unhappy with their local schools.
Selective
Trafford is the only borough in Greater Manchester to operate a selective admissions process, which allocates places at its schools depending on results of the controversial 11-plus exam.
Some youngsters who enrol at Knutsford have passed the 11-plus, but have been unable to secure a place at Trafford's over-subscribed grammar schools.
But most are believed to have opted for Knutsford after their children failed the 11-plus.
Heather Ellis, whose 15-year-old son Thomas gets the bus at 7.40am every day, says she decided to send her son to Knutsford because she was unhappy with the high school allocated by the local authority.
Mother-of-two Christine Taylor, from Urmston, also believes Knutsford High is worth the daily journey, which can take an hour each morning.
She said: "I had heard Knutsford High School had a good reputation, even though it is further away and I would have to pay for transport. I wouldn't have wanted my children to go to the schools in Trafford that were made available to me."
The parent-run bus service started in the 1980s, with a single minibus.
Mrs Grimshaw said: "The buses have been going for about 17 or 18 years and I took it over in 1992. At that time there were four buses - but now there are 10."
Stephen Cunliffe, deputy headteacher at Knutsford High School, said: "People come to us because they see us as a renowned comprehensive in terms of the curriculum we offer, the options and classes that we can deliver and because of our size.
"A lot of parents do use us as a back-up in case their children don't get into grammar school, but there are others that choose us over and above the selective system."
Trafford Council's director of education Margaret Woodhouse said the council is the best performing local education authority in the north west and one of the best nationally in terms of results, while the number of pupils travelling into the borough to attend school is far higher than those going out.
She said: "We respect the right of a parent to choose the school they feel best meets the needs of their child. For a small percentage of parents this is a school outside Trafford."
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This story is a damning indictment of the ridiculous out dated system of selection via the 11 plus which Trafford still insists on using. Ms Woodhouse should open her eyes to what is happening to children who do not get into grammar schools or who do not have the means to catch a bus into Cheshire. Pupils who have Special Educational Needs are not getting the support they need because schools are being denied funding for these students. Students who have English as an Additional Language are being woefully treated as the number of EAL staff is being slashed. Oh but then again the assumption made by the LEA is that these students will not achieve 5 or more GCSE grades above C so they are not worth investing in. Its time Trafford got its act together and starting working for ALL its students and parents not just the brightest or richest.
Trafford schools are far superior to those in surrounding boroughs, free from the interference of Soclialist "equalities" in Manchester, for example, here in Trafford everythign is determined by ability - as it should be. I would advise anyone wishing to give their child any chance of a future in this country, or preferably elsehwere, to get into a Trafford school !
In response to bloerjustice. He obviously does not value education as much as he should. In my day, in true Tebbit style, I walked the 3 miles to school from my single parent council house in Benchill to my "chosen" high school in Chorlton. This was in 1978, when schools were allocated based on their feeder junior school under the then Labour government. I failed by 180 yard to get a free bus pass and my mother rightly insisted on me getting the best education. Whats a three mile walk to secure a future. Nothing. Pity todays parents dont push things as much as they should and maybe things will change.
Is this the LEA which has had Ofsted place 2 Secondary Modern Schools in special measures recently?