A grammar school has been criticised by a parent who has accused it of “failing” its students by restricting their study options.

Donald Mason, of Turketel Road in Folkestone, has penned a letter to the Folkestone and Hythe MP Damian Collins after his son didn’t receive his preferred study options at Harvey Grammar School.

Mr Mason’s 16-year-old son, Christian, has been denied the option to study any of the three science topics (biology, chemistry or physics) at A-level, despite achieving A and B grades in them at GCSE.

He has been told this is because he did not achieve the correct grades in the units that made up his final mark.

Mr Mason and his wife, Vinka, attended a meeting at the school, where they say they were told that the entry requirements were based on statistics.

Mr Mason’s letter to the MP said: “We thought that the entrance criteria were probably set to make sure that the course was not over-subscribed.

“Sadly this was not the case. We were told that the criteria had been set because, statistically, students who did not achieve an A grade in either units two or three in the science GCSE exam were more likely to either drop out at the end of Year 12, or fail.”

Christian would like to follow in his father’s footsteps and go on to study engineering, with qualifications in science being a key requirement.

Christian is doing A-level maths, further maths and design and technology – and his father confirmed he is studying physics “privately.”

Mr Mason is the director of Dyrhoff Limited in the Shearway Business Park which, according to its website specialises the design and supply of inflatable rubber dams and spillway gates.

He employs 10 workers as part of the business and outlined to Mr Collins that there is a national shortage of engineers.

He said: “In my view this is a blatant misrepresentation of the school’s education policy.

“My son was extremely upset. From the outside, it appears that the school is actually preventing them from studying the subjects they either enjoy or need for their future careers.”

Head teacher at the school, Scott Norman, said: “We publish our entry criteria for A-level subjects eight months in advance, there was no complaint at this point and there are many other providers of post 16 education available if our offer is unacceptable to individuals.

“We do relax entry criteria when there are mitigating circumstances.

“However, Mr Mason’s son is already studying Chemistry A-level as part of an A-level programme that also includes further maths and design and technology.

“At the time we researched engineering degree routes at good universities to ensure that there were a number of engineering routes available to him with this programme – this is the case and there were no other mitigating circumstances that affected his performance in the GCSE examinations.

“Given these facts, on this occasion we did not relax our criteria.

“It is not fair for one individual to avoid the need to gain the entry criteria when others are expected to adhere to this.

“We expect an A grade in one of the GCSE examined units as this has proven to be a strong indicator of a student’s ability to cope with the demands of the A-level sciences.

“A total of 32% of our students going into higher education go on to study science and engineering based degrees, we very much hope Mr Mason’s son will be one of those.”