A FAMILY that has suffered hard times has just been dealt another body blow.

Golcar couple Jason and Lorna Kaye are devastated that their appeal to send their eldest son Kian, 5, to the nearby Golcar Infant School has been rejected by Kirklees – despite his attendance at the school’s nursery for the past 18 months.

Instead, he has been awarded a place at Wellhouse Infant School, a car journey away.

The news is particularly worrying as Kian has great difficulty adapting to change and displays obsessive compulsive behaviour.

Although still waiting for official diagnosis, he has been referred to an autism specialist.

This latest setback follows a difficult two years for the family. Mr Kaye, 33, works as a salesman, but the recession affected his income and led to the family losing the house they owned in Manchester Road, Linthwaite, in March of last year.

For a short while they were split up as Jason and Lorna moved into their respective parents’ homes. They were reunited a few months later in a rented house at James Street, Golcar, where they now live – just a few minutes walk from Golcar Infants in Manor Road.

The couple have two other children, Mia, 3, and seven-month-old Zak.

Mr Kaye said: “We have gone through a difficult time as a family, everything went from underneath us.

“It has taken us so long to build back up and get the family back together and it was a terrible shock to hear that Kian had not been awarded a place at Golcar.”

The Kayes put Kian’s name down on the list for Golcar Infants in 2008, soon after he was born. As they were living in Linthwaite at the time, they were also advised by a different nursery to apply to Wellhouse as well.

In October 2011, Kirklees wrote to their old Linthwaite address to say that they had not filled the form in correctly. Mr and Mrs Kaye never received this letter, despite having informed the Golcar school of their change of address.