A MOTHER who kept her daughter at home in an allocation row with Worcestershire County Council has won her battle for her school of choice.

Rebekah O'Neill, nine, will be starting at Comberton Middle School, Kidderminster, in the New Year more than three months after mum Karen was told her daughter could not attend there because it was full.

Mrs O'Neill blamed an administrative mix-up for Rebekah's failure to get in.

Rebekah had moved to Comberton First School because of bullying at her former school, Lea Street First, but did not receive her transfer form for Comberton in time - delaying the application to the middle school for a place.

The mother-of-three, who is heavily pregnant, was offered two other schools but said she could not drop off her son, Connor, six, at Comberton and then walk three miles to Birchen Coppice Middle School. She feared sending Rebekah to Sladen Middle School because of bullying at her first school.

At a late appeal on Thursday, December 13, Mrs O'Neill was told her daughter could after all attend Comberton Middle School, starting in January.

She said she was "very pleased" to have won the case but said she was angry it had taken 12 weeks for the county council to back down.

But she said her daughter, who had not been offered any home tuition, was worried about having to catch up when she went back.

A spokesman for the county council said they were pleased the issue had been satisfactorily resolved and they looked forward to welcoming Rebekah back to school next term.

He added although Mrs O'Neill had written to the LEA appealing against the original decision not to award her daughter a place at Comberton Middle School she had not followed the proper procedure.