A MOTHER has spoken of her 'fight' to find her daughter a school place, six weeks into the new academic year.

As reported on the front of yesterday's Oxford Mail, several children in Bicester have still not got a place at secondary school, after academies used their freedom to deny pupils a place.

At least six schools in and around Bicester say they are full, leaving families who have just moved into the town having to wait for a place to come up.

READ AGAIN: Mum's outrage as son is still waiting for a school place SIX WEEKS into term

Commenting on our website yesterday, which reported the struggle of Tracie Puiu-Brock to find her son a place, another mum wrote: "I am one of the parents too that have been fighting for the last 11 weeks to get my daughter into school.

"Having a new build house is lovely [but] when the builders overrun on timings, it isn't so great.

"This means everything else gets held up, like applying for school places.

"I started my application for school at the start of July, and I did not hear anything until the first week into September, advising that my daughter had been declined a space in the local school, and also the other schools around the area, due to being at full capacity."

Parents can only apply for a school place when they have proof of address within the local authority's area.

She claimed she was advised to home school, adding: "No one wants to know, and no one wants to help."

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Oxfordshire County Council is working with the schools to persuade them to take on more pupils, and said it is treating the cases with the 'utmost urgency.'

The council has no power to compel academy schools into admitting a child, although the secretary of state for education can.

County councillor John Howson, who has criticised academies in the past, said: "This is a real problem in growing areas.

"Do we want a free market in education, or a managed system for the benefit of everybody?

"The regime that was put into place has effectively created too much power for academies over the lives of ordinary citizens.

"Local authorities may not be perfect, but at least they recognise they have a duty. There is no democratic control over academies."