Alfie is a year 6 pupil and was really looking forward to going up to the local comprehensive with all his friends. He has lived in the catchment area all his life.

There were 291 applications in the school catchment area for 290 places. Alfie was the single, solitary child excluded.

The Local Education Authority proposes to send Alfie on his own every day (by taxi) to a school on the far side of the city. A round trip of over 22 miles through rush hour traffic every day.

Alfie appealed. The appeal panel was provided with evidence about the effect on Alfie's welfare. The evidence included letters from his school and GP expressing concern about Alfie's wellbeing and mental health. Being the only child out of nearly 300 to be separated from his peers and sent on his own to a distant school raises obvious concerns because of the solitary nature of Alfie's exclusion.

The appeal panel was furthermore aware that one of Alfie's parents had just been admitted to hospital with cancer, exacerbating concerns about his welfare and the loss of the social group he had grown up with.

Alfie's appeal was vigorously opposed by the Local Education Authority on the grounds that there was no capacity at the school for a single additional pupil.

The Local Education Authority provided inaccurate evidence to support their case which understated the capacity of the school.

Alfie's appeal was refused by a majority. The majority of the appeal panel appear to have been heavily influenced by the Local Education Authority and gave little weight to the evidence about Alfie's mental health and wellbeing. They were also misled by the Local Education Authority about the available capacity of the school.

A Freedom of Information Request brought forth two further troubling revelations:

• Five places at the school became available after the application cut-off date; they were all given to late applicants rather than Alfie who was first on the waiting list and who had applied on time.
• The Local Education Authority found another five places for out-of-catchment applications.

Taxpayers may be interested to know that the Local Education Authority proposes to pay around £8,500 per year (our estimate) to taxi Alfie by himself across the city to another school. This does rather seriously undermine Newport City Council's environmental credentials!

Alfie will be driven on his own, every day for at least the next five years, past the bus stop where his friends will be catching the school bus to the local comprehensive.

Is it too much to ask that when a Local Education Authority deal with admissions they apply some judgment and most importantly, they submit honest evidence to appeal panels?

We think Alfie’s appeal should be re-run, this time with accurate information.  The Local Education Authority has refused. We suggest that a review of the decision-making that led to this unfair and unsatisfactory situation is called for.

We hope you can support and sign Alfie's petition.