A Whitwick girl has been left without a school place since last December after her family moved to the area from Birmingham.

Mia O'Reily has been waiting for a place at a local school for the past eight months.

The 12-year-old's family moved to the area for a "better life" after they suffered a "bad break-in" at their former home in the West Midlands, said mum Debbie Coldwell.

Debbie applied to Leicestershire County Council for school places for her two children in November last year, which resulted in Mia's younger sister gaining a place at a local primary school, which she has been attending since December, she said. Debbie, a special needs teacher, and Mia were invited into Castle Rock School, Coalville, in March to have a look round and meet staff, which led to Mia being offered a place to start in mid-April.

But the family then heard nothing from the school nor council for weeks, despite Debbie's attempts to make to make contact, she said.

The family were finally told in May that the school could not take Mia due to it "not having enough space", said Debbie.

As an alternative, Mia was offered a place at a school in Castle Donington, 19 miles away from where the family live.

Castle Rock School in Coalville. Photo: Instantstreetview.com

The family rejected that, however, because they were unable to transport Mia to the school, and because they feared it would affect her ability to build friendships.

Debbie then launched an appeal against the rejection from Castle Rock, which was upheld. The mum said Mia was now set to start at the school in September.

Debbie told the Local Democracy Reporting Service she was worried the disruption to Mia's education would have "lasting effects" on her daughter, despite her own attempts to home-school her.

She said: "Every child in this generation is behind as it is because of Covid, but now this means Mia will have missed nearly a full year of teaching.

"It has caused such a detrimental effect to her mental health and education and it's not her fault. She's had no ability to socialise, be in a classroom environment and make new friends after moving to a new area.

"She would often ask me what's the point in her getting up in the morning because she had nothing to do.

"And this is because we've been truly messed around and mistreated by the council. I have spent so many hours on the phone waiting to speak to someone but you never get anywhere.

"I had to physically go into the council offices myself to speak to someone. It's been an awful process."

Debbie added: "As a teacher myself, we are constantly told and pressured to reinforce to parents and pupils the importance of education and the detrimental effect is has even if they are late, let alone being absent.

"Knowing that my daughter has been kept off for this amount of time is almost hypocritical, it's a disgrace and I really hope we can recover from it."

A spokesperson for Leicestershire County Council told the LDRS it was unable to comment on the specifics of individual cases, but added it was "pleased to have worked with the school and parent to secure the preferred outcome".