Sarah finds a school place after all

Sarah Pacey has started at Bexhill High and says life is "brilliant"

The Observer highlighted the problem faced by Sarah when she moved with her family to the area in December to be told that no places were available at St Richard's School, Bexhill High or Claverham in Battle.

Her mother Monica Blackmore of Wentworth Close explained how not finding a school for Sarah was driving the family to despair; "We wake up in the morning wondering what we are going to do. We want her to go to school. She wants to go to school."

"If we chose not to send our child to school for six weeks then we would be taken to court, yet when it's the other way round parents have no comeback."

Monica and her husband Geoff Blackmore were stunned a couple of days later to receive a call from the LEA informing them of a place at Bexhill High.

"When we heard the news Sarah started jumping all around the room."

"Later we were told there had actually been a mix-up and that Sarah should already have started.

"She has a statement and the school said they had even received the funding from the LEA and they were all organised and ready for her."

"It was amazing, a really unusual turn of events."

The couple say since that moment they cannot fault Bexhill High, where every effort has been made to welcome Sarah and encourage her to feel comfortable in her new surroundings.

"We are very pleased, absolutely delighted with how things have worked out. They have been bending over backwards to help her. Everyone has been so helpful and supportive.

"She has made friends and she is happy. She is going to be just fine. I don't think we could have found a better school at the moment. I never knew a school be so caring and protective of a child."