Parents consider starting school

Parents say they are frustrated by a lack of school places

Parents in one part of Bristol are considering starting their own secondary school in response to a lack of places in nearby state schools.

The parents, from the Westbury-on-Trym area of the city, are being backed by the charity New Schools Network.

They say their children, currently attending Westbury's Church of England Primary School, have no option as their preferred local secondary, Redland Green School, is oversubscribed.

In 2009, the popular secondary received 598 application for 189 places - just over three applications for every place.

Rachel Wolf, director of New Schools Network, claims the scheme has already worked elsewhere.

"We've seen this happen in Sweden and America where they've allowed parents to open their own schools and it's been an amazing success.

"As long as they've got a good business plan and good curriculum, they'd obviously hire a head teacher and staff, then they can be given government money like any other state school."

There's not a lot of choice in Bristol and we're finding parents are sending their children to South Gloucestershire and North Somerset Parent Karen Foster

She added parents have also set up similar projects in the UK which, she says, have worked.

"We've actually had a couple of parent-promoted schools set up in England as well - there's one in Lambeth - and again it's been a tremendous success."

One of the parents behind the move is Karen Foster, who has two children.

She says her frustration with Bristol's education system has led them to push for the new school.

"There's not a lot of choice in Bristol and we're finding parents are sending their children to South Gloucestershire and North Somerset.

"We've got a lot of private schools in Bristol, and having got the Redland School, it's great but oversubscribed."

Karen says that the charity was willing to come to their aid and they needed a solution to their children's education problems.

"At the moment there doesn't seem to be any other choice - people are willing to help us, and we're just parents, most of the people will have full-time jobs at the same time.

"There's a charity out there that's willing to help us go through all the motions and the political angles that we don't necessarily understand and help us out.

The new Redland Green school is oversubscribed

"We're all fed up of having this conversation in the playground every day about what we are going to do with our children, where are they going to go?

"This is, sort of, a lifeline and may give us another opportunity and it's better doing something than nothing."

Another parent, Blair King who has three children, added: "It's just about giving parents the additional choice, rather than drive them out of Bristol and break up the communities that have developed while at primary school.

"It seems a shame to let that go, so we would like to have something that is easily accessible rather than having to spend 40, 45 minutes in the car each morning driving kids away from the area."

Bristol City Council's education chief, Claire Campion-Smith, said: "One of the things that we want to do in Bristol is to be able to educate our own children in Bristol's schools.

"So we are looking very carefully at whether we do need any more schools.

"At the moment we do have surplus places within Bristol in the north but... we know that we've had the situation where we've got extra children coming into reception.

"We've got to be watching carefully all the time to make sure that we provide them with the secondary places."