TWO mothers have given up an eight-week battle to get their sons into Dr Challoner's Grammar School in Amersham.

Last week the women Tracey Harvey and Ingrid Gamble, both from Denham accepted places at Chesham High School, where there are spare spaces.

They said they could no longer continue to put their boys through the ordeal of worrying about whether they would be able to go to Dr Challoner's.

At the beginning of March they were told Dr Challoner's was full and even though they lived in its catchment area their boys, Sonny Harvey and Richard Gamble, would not be able to go there. Places were going to children who lived nearer.

Other parents in Denham and Gerrards Cross were in the same boat, and the campaign started.

"We have been though hell and back," said Mrs Harvey and Mrs Gamble, who added the past two months had been a horrible experience.

The upset arose from changes to school catchment areas coming into force for children starting at secondary schools in September.

A report to the county council cabinet in November, 2003 said, under the changes schools should be able to admit all children who lived in their catchment areas.

But Beaconsfield High, Dr Challoner's Grammar, the Royal Grammar, Dr Challoner's High and Sir William Borlase's Grammar, all in the south of the county could not. The other grammar schools in the county took all their catchment area children, and some had spare places.

The LEA said this had happened because more children had passed the 11-plus than last year.

Yesterday, Beaconsfield MP, Dominic Grieve, handed Buckinghamshire County Council an 800-signature petition saying people were unhappy about the system.

Mr Grieve said: "We don't know whether this year is a one-off or a persistent problem. My hunch is that people are flooding into Bucks for our education system."

Mrs Gamble said she now had to focus on the positive. "We have to tell the children they will be fine at Chesham," she said.

Mrs Harvey said she would continue to work to make sure this does not happen again.