:-: Her Majesty's sympathy for schoolgirl, 8, who wrote letter to the Queen after she was refused a place at her chosen school :-:
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10:21 GMT, 3 Jan 2019 |
When education bosses refused to let her study at a school where she felt safe and happy, obsessive compulsive disorder sufferer Jessica Compston appeared to have run out of options.
But the eight-year-old had other ideas and appealed to a higher authority - the Queen.
In her best handwriting, she complained that the ‘government arent letting me go to Littele Thetford Primery School [sic]’, adding the ruling defied her doctor’s recommendation.
In case her point wasn’t clear, she added: ‘I miss Littele Thetford School. Will you help me [sic].’
The plea appears to have touched the regal heart strings because a reply came from Buckingham Palace which suggested the Queen had taken a personal interest in Jessica’s plight.
Plight: After Jessica Compston wrote to the Queen asking for her help to get back into her old school she was delighted to receive a reply from Buckingham Palace
Although an assistant said Her Majesty could not intervene personally, she added: ‘I have... been instructed to send your letter to The Right Honourable Michael Gove MP, the Secretary of State for Education, so that he may know of your approach to the Queen on this matter and may consider the points you raise.’
Jessica was a pupil at Little Thetford Primary School until her parents’ marriage fell apart towards the end of 2010.
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Her mother Louise, who married a U.S. soldier, had to leave the married accommodation provided to service families in Ely and moved more than 20 miles away to a council house in Sawston, where Jessica was enrolled in a new school.
Plea: Jessica had been a pupil at Little Thetford Primary School until her mother Louise split up with her father in 2010 and the pair were forced to move away. Jessica was then enrolled in a new school
Heartbreaking: Jessica wrote a letter to Adrian Loades, Cambridgeshire County Council's director of children's services begging him for help
Jessica’s condition had been limited to a few ‘rituals’ before the move, such as refusing to wear certain types of shoes and clothes.
But the change of home and school, plus her parents’ separation, distressed her so much that new problems emerged, such as fearing contamination from soap, refusing to use certain cutlery, and having to stand by a fence and count before she was able to leave the house.
She was bullied at her new school because of her condition and moved to another.
But she still failed to settle and began ‘screaming and crying’ when she was due to turn up for classes. In the end, her mother stopped taking her and is now educating her at home.
Mrs Compston, 46, who also has a 23-month-old daughter Grace, asked Cambridge County Council if her daughter could return to school in Little Thetford, explaining she kept begging to return there.
But her request was denied and an appeal against the decision failed in March.
Fighting back tears yesterday, she said: ‘I am so grateful to the Queen for bringing some attention to Jessica’s case by asking the Education Secretary to look at it.
‘I don’t have any faith in the education system. They are not listening to me and they are not listening to my child.
Heartwarming: She then wrote a letter to the Queen explaining how, due to suffering from OCD, leaving the school had made her ill
‘I’m not expecting them to transport Jessica from home to school and back every day at taxpayers’ expense. I will do it. But they still don’t listen.’
Jessica, who was officially diagnosed with OCD last year, wrote her letter after her mother’s appeal was turned down.
Mrs Compston, a full-time mother whose husband has now been posted to Italy, said: ‘Jessica knew I was fighting the authorities and said she was going to do something.
Royal response: A reply from Buckingham Palace said that while the Queen, seen right today in Salisbury, could not intervene she had instructed a copy of Jessica's letter to go to Education Secretary Michael Gove
‘She went to the dining room and sat at the table and wouldn’t let me look at what she was doing. She wanted to write the letter herself.’
A Cambridgeshire County Council spokesman last night said staff had been working with the family ‘to try to ensure this young person receives a prompt and proper education’.
He added: ‘The family requested a place at Little Thetford Primary School, but this was declined because the school was already oversubscribed.’
However, David Harty, the Cambridgeshire councillor responsible for learning, offered a ray of hope.
‘I’m not familiar with the case but I shall make some enquiries about it,’ he said.
‘I’m not familiar with the case but I shall make some enquiries about it,’ he said.
Jessica's condition is so severe that she is paralysed with anxiety or dissolves into tears if her rituals are broken.
A Department for Education spokesman said he was ‘sorry to hear about Jessica’s problem’ and added the government was putting more money into education to increase places at schools.
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