AN angry Kidderminster mother has hit out at a schools' appeals panel claiming it disregarded her family's circumstances in refusing to allow her daughter to go to the middle school of her choice.

Nine-year-old Gemma White has been told she must go to Sladen Middle School when she finishes at Comberton First School even though her brother Jamie, five, attends Comberton First.

Mum Sally White, of Ludlow Road, said it would be impossible to get both children to school on time as they would each have to travel in opposite directions.

"I've been told there is a school bus to Sladen, but at nine years old my daughter is too young to travel on her own," she said.

"Unfortunately I am a parent who cares and I would not allow her to go to school on her own, neither would I just dump my son in the playground and shoot off.

"It will mean my daughter will be late for school every day and I will be late for work as well," said Mrs White, a general administrator at a Kidderminster company.

She is writing to Wyre Forest MP Dr Richard Taylor and local MEP Liz Lynne in the hope that they will support her case and vowed to consider having Gemma taught at home rather than send her to Sladen.

"The appeals panel has taken no account of our circumstances or the fact our daughter has been at Comberton Middle's feeder school and the nursery before that," she said.

She and her husband Nick, a chemical processor working in Oldbury, were told at the appeal that if they still lived at their previous home in Lorne Street their daughter would have been given a place at Comberton.

Both addresses are outside Comberton's catchment area, but Lorne Street is slightly nearer. However, Mrs White said she knew of children living closer to Sladen who had been given places at Comberton Middle School.

A county council spokesman said Comberton Middle had been massively over-subscribed with 234 children chasing 150 places.

Of 86 applications that came from outside the catchment area, only eight were successful in being offered places.

The spokesman added: "While we have every sympathy with the Whites' situation there are many others in a similar position.

"This happens when a school proves so popular and unfortunately there's nothing that can be done when the number of applications outweighs the number of places so heavily.

"When there are only one or two additional applications it has been known for a school to take in more than its stated number, but when there are more than 80, there will unfortunately be a number of disappointed parents."