Birmingham Boy Forced to Make 170-Mile Round Trip to School

BIRMINGHAM boy forced to make 170-mile round trip to school every day from Manchester.

Birmingham’s ongoing social housing shortage has led to one 10-year-old boy having to travel a staggering 170 miles each day just to get to school and back home again. His home sadly though was a Travelodge in Manchester, as due to the lack of housing he and his family had to stay in Manchester even though the boy’s school was in Birmingham.

Isaac made the tiring trip to his Handsworth primary school every day for a period of two months, before the family were rehomed. According to Birmingham Live the young boy had to be up at 5am every morning, to make it to school in time. Speaking of his journey Isaac explained that, “It was very tiring.

“I went to bed as soon as I got home at night then got up again the next day.

“We would wake up at 5am and leave at 6am in the morning. My mum and dad think education matters, so always got me to school.”

Sadly, though this is not a unique case and Victoria Rivett, Isaac’s Head teacher explained how she has multiple pupils who have been housed out of the area due to temporary housing issues. She said, “I am very proud of Isaac, he showed great resilience to keep coming in to school. But we should really not have children having to go through ordeals like this.

“Just this week one family was moved to Wolverhampton and another to Walsall. The impact on children and their families of regular upheaval can be unsettling.”

Although the City Council always hopes to keep families in their home city, at times this cannot be avoided. Gary Messenger, Birmingham City Council’s head of interim housing spoke of the national housing crisis and said, “We always work very hard to bring families back to the city. We are doing our level best for every family, but we are in the grip of a national housing crisis, being seen across the country.

“Our priority is to ensure the health and wellbeing needs of children and families are met. We would ideally house all our families here in the city, unless there is a legitimate safeguarding reason not to do so.”

Thank you for taking the time to read this news article “Birmingham Boy Forced to Make 170-Mile Round Trip to School”. For more UK daily news, Spanish daily news and Global news stories, visit the Euro Weekly News home page.