By Katherine Sellgren BBC News Online education staff

Mr Howard was pleased to oblige with autographs

As the Conservatives launch their latest plans for schools, party leader Michael Howard is hoping he proves as popular among voters as he was among school pupils in London.

"It's Michael something, isn't it?"

"Yeah, let's get his autograph!"

For pupils at Churchill Gardens Community Primary School in Pimlico, London, the Conservative leader, Michael Howard, was quite a hit.

After attending Tuesday morning's school assembly, Mr Howard was besieged by a group of enthusiastic boys wanting his autograph.

"You mustn't give this to your teacher as an example of good writing, because it's not good writing," he joked with them.

Mr Howard was visiting the school, along with the shadow education secretary, Tim Collins, to mark the launch of the party's education plans for the next general election.

Freedom of choice is at best an illusion and at worst it amounts to the law of the jungle Chris Keates, NASUWT

Parents' choice

The education "Right to Choose" package aims to free up schools from the control of "bureaucrats and politicians", leaving head teachers to manage their own budgets, set admissions policies and decide which disruptive pupils to exclude.

The Tory package promises more choice for parents with the creation of up 600,000 extra school places and by allowing successful and popular schools to expand.

But Mr Howard and his plans have not met with the same warm response elsewhere.

The Secondary Heads Association accused the Tories of going "too far" with their proposals on choice, saying the plans would lead to a steeper hierarchy of schools.

Shadow education secretary Tim Collins accompanied Mr Howard

"Secondary head teachers welcome greater autonomy, but this has to be in a framework of collaboration or we shall return to the worst excesses of the grant maintained era, when school was set against school in a false belief that competition raises standards," said the general secretary, John Dunford.

Exclusions

Dr Dunford also raised concerns about the removal of appeals panels for expulsions.

"The right of appeal to an appeals panel is a useful safeguard for parents who wish to challenge the school decision to exclude," he said.

Similar concerns were raised by the National Association of Head Teachers.

"Certainly, heads want more autonomy, greater budgetary control and less interference with their disciplinary powers. But they do not want a total "free for all" when it comes to admissions and parental choice," said general secretary, David Hart.

"The chances are that the Conservative plans, far from helping those disadvantaged by the present system, will worsen the present divide to the detriment of many parents and their schools."

Mr Howard's plans are proving controversial

The NASUWT teachers' union said the package was "completely unworkable".

"Freedom of choice is at best an illusion and at worst it amounts to the law of the jungle," said acting general secretary, Chris Keates.

The Campaign for State Education was critical of the plans to give schools more choice over pupil selection.

"If schools select their pupils, the choice of schools for the vast majority of parents is reduced not enhanced. That seems to be obvious to everybody, except Conservative and Labour education policy makers," said spokesperson Margaret Tulloch.