A MUM and her two young children face having to walk a six-mile round trip to school every day after missing out on places at their six nearest schools.

Jade Winter, 21, a lifelong Wrecclesham resident, says she applied for a reception class place for her four year old daughter Aimee at Highfield South Farnham this September - but was instead offered a place at Folly Hill School, a full 3.1 miles from her home in Cobbetts Way.

Folly Hill is Jade’s seventh nearest school, coming after St Peter’s, Highfield, Potters Gate, Rowledge, St Andrew’s and St Polycarp’s - all of which were oversubscribed this year.

Jade initially declined the offer at Folly Hill and appealed to the Local Education Authority (LEA), Surrey County Council to reverse its decision.

However, after an independent panel backed the LEA, Jade must now enrol her daughter at Folly Hill in the spring term or face legal action.

As Jade does not have access to a car, she now faces having to walk more than six miles every day to and from school, including having to cross the Coxbridge roundabout with Aimee and her five-month-old son Jack, as well as hauling Jack’s pushchair up the Bishops Steps in Castle Hill.

There are also no direct buses between Wrecclesham and Folly Hill, meaning Jade would have to change buses in Farnham while grappling with her pushchair and young daughter - at considerable daily expense.

Most upsetting for the young mum, however, is the fact her little girl, having attended Highfield’s nursery school for a number of years, has been separated from her friends - all of whom Jade says were handed places at Highfield.

Jade told The Herald: “We walked up to Folly Hill last Friday, and it took us two hours to get there. I had to wake Aimee up at 6am to get her ready as well as my five-month-old baby, and about half way there she sat down on a step and didn’t want to move.

“Her legs were hurting, her back was hurting, and the whole way up there I could hear Aimee saying to herself ‘I wish I could be at school with my friends’.

“It still wasn’t light when we left home and crossing the Coxbridge roundabout with two young children was quite scary. Then I had to lift the pushchair up the steps by the castle. By the time I got to the top I thought I would have to be resuscitated!

“It’s just not right, there’s got to be something they can do to help us. You can’t put a four-year-old child through this. She hasn’t eaten properly since she found out she can’t go to Highfield, it’s just horrible.”

At the core of Jade’s problem is the fact she only applied for a first preference place at Highfield - overlooking her closest school St Peter’s “for personal reasons”, and declining to state second, third and fourth preferences.

As a result, after missing out on a place at in-demand Highfield she was forced down the list of admissions priorities at other nearby schools, until a place was finally found for her daughter at under-subscribed Folly Hill.

Explaining her decision to only apply for a place at Highfield, Jade said: “I wouldn’t have sent her to nursery at Highfield if I didn’t want her going to school there, and all of her friends from nursery now go to Highfield. I knew that if I had to send Aimee to another school it would devastate her.

“The day she had to go back into nursery and saw all her friends going into reception, she was absolutely gutted. She keeps asking ‘mummy do you think my friends miss me’ and ‘am I still allowed to see my friends?’ A four year old shouldn’t be saying things like that. It’s so sad.”

Highfield was raised out of the ashes of the struggling Pilgrims Way School in 2014, and is now in the top three per cent of schools in terms of progress in the country.

Demand for places has risen steadily since 2014, and the school received 96 applications for places this academic year - far outstripping its yearly intake of 30 children.

Headteacher Greg West expressed sympathy for Jade’s situation, but explained that such was the demand for places at Highfield, all children given reception places this year live within a kilometre of the school - unlike Jade and her family.

Mr West added Highfield’s admissions are handled by Surrey County Council, and his school has “no jurisdiction or input” into what happens during the admissions process - including at appeal.

“Overall we got 96 applications across all preferences this year and when you consider that Pilgrims Way used to get about 16, it goes to show how far the school has moved forward,” he said.

“We all feel incredibly sad for Miss Winter and Aimee who is a delightful girl. But I hope she understands that admissions are handled by Surrey County Council and I can’t do anything about it.”

Mr West added the parents of all children approaching school age in Highfield’s nursery are offered help with their school applications, including Miss Winter who he said has been “supported enormously” by his school.

He did, however, present a possible solution to Jade’s transport issues, commenting that if she accepts Folly Hill’s offer of a place, she could be entitled to free school transport.