Dawn Hudson tried desperately to get her eldest sons into the same school when the family moved to a different part of Jarrow last year.

While a place was found for seven-year-old Robert at Valley View Primary, in Lambton Terrace, there was no room for his brother Thomas, six.

Robert previously attended St Mary's RC Primary – almost two miles away in Ayr Drive – when they lived on the Scotch Estate.

Now they live in Roman Road, Primrose, and Mrs Hudson, who has three other children, has to fit two school runs into her busy schedule.

She is left to drive her sons to school as her husband, Paul, 38, starts work as a tyre fitter early in the morning.

The 28-year-old's hopes of getting Thomas, who remains at St Mary's, into Valley View in time for the new school year were dashed when another child was offered a vacant place.

Mrs Hudson, 28, said: "I put Robert in the school to improve my chances of getting Thomas in because of a sibling link, but a place has recently came up and was given to someone else.

"I do not begrudge that person the place because they live closer, but I have five children and three are under three, and Thomas is 15 minutes late every day.

"The schools have offered help with breakfast clubs, but with an eight-month-old, 18-month-old and two-and-a-half-year-old, it is impractical.

"I have even asked if they could move Thomas up or down a year to get him into the school.

"I'm on anti-depressants because of all this. It's down to the stress of running around. I can't keep going the way I'm going on.

"The time Thomas is missing every day adds up to two-and-a-half weeks a year of his education being missed.

"Robert has to leave school five minutes early every day, which adds up to three-and-a-half days missed."

South Tyneside Council said it sympathises with the family and is doing all it can to help.

A spokesman said: "We make every effort to offer children a place at their parents' first-choice school, but this depends on the number of places that are available in each year group.

"Infant classes – reception, Year 1 and Year 2 – are limited by legislation to a maximum of 30 children.

"The infant class that Mr and Mrs Hudson would like the younger of their school-age sons to attend is already at this maximum, which means their preferred school cannot accommodate him.

"We do sympathise with the position the Hudson family are in and, along with the schools, are looking at ways in which we can support them."