Two grandfathers are urging North Yorkshire Council to provide free school transport for children living outside a catchment zone, with one saying parents face a “huge financial burden” by having to cover the cost themselves.

Graham Auton told The Press his daughter, who lives in Kelfield, chose to send her 13-year-old to Brayton Academy in Selby.

She forfeited her right to council-funded school transport in doing so as Brayton Academy is outside her child’s catchment area.

North Yorkshire Council’s education boss said parents who choose to send their child to a school outside their catchment zone have “no entitlement for assistance” when it comes to travelling there.

But Mr Auton said his daughter – like other parents in the area – didn’t want to send her child to the school zoned for the catchment area, Barlby High School, as it was rated ‘inadequate’ by Ofsted at the time.

Inspectors, in a 2021 Ofsted report, wrote that many pupils at Barlby High School didn’t feel safe, some didn’t believe teachers could “deal with bulling effectively” and “others told inspectors that they had been victims of homophobic abuse”.

The school’s Ofsted rating has since improved to ‘requires improvement’.

The Hope Sentamu Learning Trust, which runs Barlby High School, declined to comment to The Press on Mr Auton’s concerns but after the 2021 Ofsted report the trust said it had made changes to the school’s leadership team as part of an action plan to tackle the issues raised by inspectors.

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Mr Auton said his daughter – like other parents in the area – was faced with “an intolerable situation, a dilemma” when deciding where to send her child to school.

“Do they put the safety of their child at risk just so they can get free transport? And, if it was me, I would say definitely not,” the retired computer consultant said.

The 72-year-old, from Copmanthorpe, estimates that 55 children who attend Brayton Academy are from areas outside the catchment area – including Hemingbrough, Osgodby and Kelfield – after their parents decided not to send them to Barlby High School.

He explained that some parents have devised car sharing schemes to get their children to and from school as council-funded school transport is not available to them.

But, he said, this comes with complications, and means they must cover the transport cost which is a “massive financial burden”.

Mr Auton claims the children cannot use public buses in the area as he has been told by parents that they are “very unreliable”.

Grandfathers call on council to act

He and Chris Sheppard, the grandfather of another child at Brayton Academy, have written to North Yorkshire Council, calling on the authority to provide transport to and from the school for these children living out of the catchment area.

Mr Auton added that they have approached local bus companies about providing transport but these talks are yet to come to fruition.

“If [the parents] had chosen a school outside the catchment area for their own personal preferences… then that is a personal choice based on what they want for their children,” he said.

“This situation is a choice that had to be made to safeguard children against the risks of sending those children to a school which was effectively slammed by Ofsted.”

North Yorkshire Council’s assistant director for education and skills, Amanda Newbold, told The Press: “Our current home to school transport policy provides eligibility for travel assistance for pupils to either their catchment school or their nearest suitable school if they meet the distance or other eligibility criteria.

“However, if parents choose to send their child to another school, there is no entitlement for assistance.”

A spokesperson for the Rodillian Multi Academy Trust, which runs Brayton Academy, told The Press: “We are aware of the transport issues faced by some students.

“We have tried to work with the local authority to come up with a solution and will continue to work with them and parents.”