is there a better solution for this poor mother and her child?

[GodAtum]

It seems absurd she has to take 3 buses just to get her child to school Surely there must be another route?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...ool-turned-place-primary-10-minutes-away.html

Britain's toughest school-run: Mother takes four-hour journey involving 12 buses to get her daughter to school after being turned down for place at primary 10 minutes away

• Melissa Stowe's daughter Olivia, four, will start school in September
• Oliva was turned down by oversubscribed school near family home
• Miss Stowe, 22, will need to take three buses to get Olivia to school
• She will then need to get home again, and repeat the journey to collect her - and all this will cost £35 a week
  
• Miss Stowe says journey from Methley, Leeds, to Allerton Bywater will be a two-hour round trip, and they will have to leave home at 6.40am
  
• Leeds City Council says there is 'unusually high demand' for school places

For many mothers, the school run can be one of the most stressful parts of their day.

Spare a thought then for Melissa Stowe, who faces a four-hour journey involving 12 buses to get her daughter Olivia to and from school after the little girl was turned down by primary ten minutes from their home.

When the four-year-old starts school in September, Miss Stowe, 22, will have to take three buses from their home in Methley, Leeds, West Yorkshire to drop her off in Allerton Bywater, and three buses back.

Miss Stowe will then have to repeat the exhausting two-hour round trip - along with eight-month-old baby Daisy and her pram - when she collects Olivia at the end of the day...

 

[starrymarkb]

Why did I look at the comments - all seem to be blaming immigrants.

 

[northwichcat]

Why did I look at the comments - all seem to be blaming immigrants.

And apparently if you're interested in that story, you'd be also interested in a story in what shoes Dannii Minogue decided to purchase on a recent shopping trip.

 

[gordonthemoron]

google suggests a two bus journey via Castleford taking about half an hour

 

[90019]

Surely there must be another route?

 

[gordonthemoron]

TBF there is a river in the way which is presumably why the journey is circuitous (for bus and car)

 

[Deerfold]

Shouldn't be costing £35 a week.

A weekly bus pass for West Yorkshire is £21.50 and £9.25 child (cheaper if you buy for longer Periods) so she shouldn't be paying any more than £30.75 at worst.

 

[northwichcat]

Shouldn't be costing £35 a week.

A weekly bus pass for West Yorkshire is £21.50 an £9.25 child (cheaper if you buy for longer Periods) so she shouldn't be paying any more than £30.75 at worst.

Yes. Although I imagine the person in question is buying operator specific tickets for two different operators.

 

[Tetchytyke]

Blaming "immigrants" is because there are not enough school places for everyone. It's a fair point.

As for the journey itself, Metro doesn't seem to think it'll take that long, though half an hour each way is still bad enough. And she won't qualify for a free scholars pass because that's assessed as the crow flies.

 

[talltim]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/freddy/79076425/

 

[jopsuk]

reform the school system in England so that all Primary schools (at the very least) are secular, state run and have defined, non-overlapping catchment areas removing "choice" from parents. Make sure that catchment area boundaries take into account barriers such as rivers, motorways, railway lines with limited crossing points. Thoroughly rebuild the local road and path network to "dutch" standard to ensure that if outside of a short walk, for most pupils a short cycle ride will see them good. Only allow car journeys to school in rural areas where population density is low

 

[90019]

Blaming "immigrants" is because there are not enough school places for everyone. It's a fair point.

Though you might as well say there's not enough people emigrating, since the levels are roughly the same.

 

[starrymarkb]

I do wonder if there is exaggeration in order to try and put pressure on the council to relent.

Would also be interested where the two schools are in the league tables (ie failing to get into the 'Good' School)

And maybe Schools should be expanded as new estates develop or populations increase. I remember there were a few objections from NIMBYS to my old primary school gaining extra classrooms (in semi permanent prefabs) to cope with a large housing estate being built on the site of a former Supermarket.

 

[GodAtum]

google suggests a two bus journey via Castleford taking about half an hour

is that the 189 and 166.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/freddy/79076425/

That may work our cheaper but I dont think there is a bridge across the river so she'll still have to go round the same way.

 

[bussnapperwm]

I have to catch 3 buses each way to work...and 3 back...maybe I should complain to the daily mail?

 

[talltim]

That may work our cheaper but I dont think there is a bridge across the river so she'll still have to go round the same way.

 

[northwichcat]

Blaming "immigrants" is because there are not enough school places for everyone. It's a fair point.

Note that most of the Catholic schools in England, Scotland and Wales were only built due to Irish immigrants coming over here in the past, mainly using funds raised by the Catholic church not the local councils, so without immigrants we'd have less schools.

 

[90019]

That may work our cheaper but I dont think there is a bridge across the river so she'll still have to go round the same way.

 

[Deerfold]

Note that most of the Catholic schools in England, Scotland and Wales were only built due to Irish immigrants coming over here in the past, mainly using funds raised by the Catholic church not the local councils, so without immigrants we'd have less schools.

*Fewer* schools.

But would they teach grammar any better?

 

[northwichcat]

*Fewer* schools.

But would they teach grammar any better?

Even though less has been used before plural nouns ( less words; less men ) since the time of King Alfred, many modern usage guides say that only fewer can be used in such contexts. Less, they say, should modify singular mass nouns ( less sugar; less money ) and singular abstract nouns ( less honesty; less love ).

Modern standard English practice does not reflect this distinction. When followed by than, less occurs at least as often as fewer in modifying plural nouns that are not units or groups, and the use of less in this construction is increasing in all varieties of English: less than eight million people; no less than 31 of the 50 states. When not followed by than, fewer is more frequent only in formal written English, and in this construction also the use of less is increasing: This year we have had less crimes, less accidents, and less fires than in any of the last five years.

So both seem to be acceptable unless you're speaking formally and you didn't start your post saying "Good afternoon sir/madam".

 

[Deerfold]

So both seem to be acceptable unless you're speaking formally and you didn't start your post saying "Good afternoon sir/madam".

Perhaps in America.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/less-or-fewer

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7591905.stm

 

[northwichcat]

Perhaps in America.

http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/less-or-fewer

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7591905.stm

Well the first site says the Tesco change was a case of hypercorrection.

However, there are a couple of issues to be wary of. Firstly, having absorbed the guidelines above, you may suppose that some supermarkets are grammatically on the ball by displaying notices at checkouts that state ’10 items or fewer’ (fewer rather than less being the right choice because it’s referring to items, that is, a number of things?). In fact, there were reports a few years back that Tesco had replaced their signs reading ’10 items or less’ with ones which said ‘Up to 10 items’, so as to placate the sticklers. Sorry, no need! This is an example of hypercorrection. Pocket Fowler’s Modern English Usage puts it very succinctly:

‘Supermarket checkouts are correct when the signs they display read 5 items or less (which refers to a total amount), and are misguidedly pedantic when they read 5 items or fewer (which emphasizes individuality, surely not the intention).’

http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/08/less-or-fewer/

 

[Deerfold]

Well the first site says the Tesco change was a case of hypercorrection.



http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2012/08/less-or-fewer/

Indeed - it was the overall commentary of the article I was meaning to highlight rather than the one change.

Although this site is not formally written, there's numerous aspects of informal speech I wouldn't expect to see here.

www.railforums.co.uk/showthread.php?p=1862379#post1862379

Accessible

All contributions should be readable and understandable. You should make reasonable efforts to use legible fonts and correct spelling, punctuation and grammar in all your contributions.

 

[neilmc]

Typical Daily Mail rubbish. If either the newspaper or the mother had bothered to use the WY Metro journey finder they'd see the each-way journey via Castleford takes about 40 minutes using just two buses (189 and 163). Not that this is a great option admittedly. I do hope she's grateful to the large number of immigrants who don't seem to mind getting up early to ensure West Yorkshire's bus services do actually run!

 

[CatfordCat]

The thing that immediately got a "hmm" from me about this 'story' is that I'm fairly certain that local education authorities have a legal obligation to provide home to school transport if a child lives more than X distance (from memory, 2 miles for primary, 3 miles for secondary age) from school.

And that would apply if the local authority was unable to provide a place at a school that is near home - although not if parent just chose a more distant school.

I can't help wondering if someone along the line has either inadvertently or intentionally missed this point...

 

[richw]

Shouldn't be costing £35 a week.

A weekly bus pass for West Yorkshire is £21.50 and £9.25 child (cheaper if you buy for longer Periods) so she shouldn't be paying any more than £30.75 at worst.

The child is only 4. Are under 5s not free up there? And let's face reality even when she's 5 most parents will still claim 4 for free entry etc.

 

[Qwerty133]

The thing that immediately got a "hmm" from me about this 'story' is that I'm fairly certain that local education authorities have a legal obligation to provide home to school transport if a child lives more than X distance (from memory, 2 miles for primary, 3 miles for secondary age) from school.

And that would apply if the local authority was unable to provide a place at a school that is near home - although not if parent just chose a more distant school.

I can't help wondering if someone along the line has either inadvertently or intentionally missed this point...

it's as the crow flies and it fits into the 2 mile limit, but due to rivers in the way you have to go a (very) long way round to get between the places.

 

[hidden]

This is the daily mail, typing out tripe day after day.

 

[455driver]

Why did I look at the comments - all seem to be blaming immigrants.

Funnily enough, most of the highest rated ones were blaming her for not getting the forms into the Admission dept in good time!

 

[richw]

Miss Stowe claims she did not receive an admissions form when they were sent out at the end of last year and wonders whether this could be why she didn’t get a place at her preferred school.

The local authority needs to come out of the dark ages if they are sending admissions forms by post. Here in Cornwall we weren't provided forms. It was in local media and also a leaflet sent by her pre school telling us to log onto an internet site. No log in details were provided and a registration was necessary. I'd completed my daughters application before the glossy leaflet arrived. The leaflet suggested visiting libraries and one stop shops for those without internet access.