Find my girl a school place, or I’ll be her teacher

10:40pm Wednesday 8th September 2010

By David Wiles

FRUSTRATED father Jeff King is threatening to teach his daughter on the steps of the Civic Offices if Swindon Council fails to provide a school place for her before the weekend.

Mr King, 51, says he first contacted the council in June to enrol nine-year-old Angelina King Rubio, but was told he had to wait until September for an offer letter.

Meanwhile, Lawn Primary School, the family’s first choice for Angelina, has confirmed that the school has four places available in her year group.

Mr King, who recently moved back to Swindon with his family from Spain, said: “I feel totally frustrated and mystified that they aren’t able to resolve what I would consider a really serious issue.

“She is a child who is desperate to go to school and she is fairly fed up. She keeps saying to me ‘Why can’t I start school at the same time as everyone else?’ “If the council doesn’t solve this problem by the end of Friday, I will not be teaching her from home, I will go and sit on the steps of Swindon Council every day to teach her.”

The family returned to the town over the summer because Angelina’s mother, Olga Rubio Perez, 41, who is a product manager at Tyco Electronics, was transferred to the company’s Dorcan site.

Mr King said he first contacted the council’s admissions department in June, while still in Spain, but was told that no application would be accepted until he had moved to Swindon.

On August 2, the first working day they were back in the UK, Mr King said he handed in an application at the Civic Offices.

However, the day before the new academic year began, he said he was told that the application was still being dealt with and offer letters would not be sent out until September 21.

Mr King, a fundraiser at the National Trust, and his wife have had to take every other day off work to care for and educate their daughter.

“I’m a parent and all I’m trying to do is get my child in school and I’m made to feel like a nuisance. They are just totally apathetic,” he said.

He is due to meet with John Gilbert, the council’s director of children services, tomorrow, and with Swindon South MP Robert Buckland on Friday.

A council spokesman said: “Allocating school places has to be fair, especially in schools that are oversubscribed.

“Mr King’s daughter is one of 400 children applying for school places across Swindon.

“We do not know how many spaces are available at all schools because often parents leave the country in the summer with their children and it only becomes clear that there is a space at a school when they don’t turn up at the start of term.

“Any places that are vacant will be allocated based on priority, through a fair and transparent admission process. However, this work is treated as a priority.”