A PROPOSED overhaul of school catchment areas across Bucks could force brothers and sisters into different schools, parents have warned.

Education chiefs at Buckinghamshire County Council have sent all schools draft papers detailing possible changes to the areas from which they can take pupils.

The changes are being made in line with Government efforts to provide 'local schools for local children' but some parents are bracing themselves for family difficulties.

Alison Veale, 42, of Westover Road, near Downley, High Wycombe, sent her eldest daughter to Sir William Borlase's Grammar School in Marlow two years ago. She had planned to send her younger daughter to Borlase's next year if she passes her 11-plus but now that looks increasingly unlikely.

Under the new council proposals, pupils from High Wycombe, Bourne End and Wooburn Green will be barred from Sir William Borlase's to make way for pupils from Stokenchurch and half of Maidenhead in Berkshire.

Mrs Veale's High Wycombe home, previously within Borlase's catchment area, would then fall outside the school's intake zone.

She said: "We would like the opportunity for both our children to be able to go to the same school as sisters. This now looks very unlikely.

"We are very happy with Sir William Borlase's but if we thought this might have happened perhaps we wouldn't have thought about sending our daughter to Borlase's in the first place."

Last week a spokesman at the school said they were considering the proposals which will be voted on by county council cabinet members in March.

Any changes to schools' catchment areas are likely to prove controversial in relation to the county's prestigious grammar schools because of their popularity with parents from areas further afield.

The draft proposals could bar pupils from places such as Gerrards Cross and Chalfont St Peter from attending High Wycombe's Royal Grammar School or John Hampden Grammar School.

Cllr Marion Clayton, county council cabinet member for schools, said: "I just thought it was time to have a fresh look at this. At some point we have to look at these things. We need local schools for local children."