Getting into a chosen school is not always easy

We invited your views and had many emails. Here is a selection of the responses:

I think the lottery system would be even worse than the new 'co-ordinated admissions' process for secondary schools. My daughter was without a school last March - July under the new system and that was stressful and discouraging enough for her. The lottery system would be just as bad especially if distance is not part of the admissions criteria.

It would mean that some children would have to travel further to school; it would cause so many appeals especially if a child who lived in walking distance of a school was not given a place because of a lottery system.
Angela Walton, Bexley, Kent

Good schools are and have always been a scarce commodity and a demand will always be greater than supply. The only way to solve this is to increase the size of the "good" schools and close the bad ones. This of course actually reduces choice - but Heh, you can't have it all ways can you?
Fred Preston, Hemel Hempstead UK

My brother and his family live in Norway, where he tells me that all state schools are good schools; no-one would consider moving house to be in a "better" catchment area. Why is this? What do they do differently that means that schools are more equal?

Quite possibly, it stems from attitudes towards society itself. Societies where individuals have more concern for the greater good, and less about their own individual advancement, tend to offer greater opportunities for all. All schools, in these societies, provide adequate education for students of varying abilities.

In the UK, we're arguably more selfish and individualistic, and for the middle-classes an intelligent and achieving child is a status symbol. Wealthy families therefore congregate around better schools, push their children to succeed and make the "good" schools even better (if the league tables are your measure). "Failing" schools, conversely, pick up the students whose parents cannot afford to relocate, as well as those who don't care which school their child attends because they don't value education. It only takes a few unmotivated and disruptive students to affect a whole school.

So - perhaps the lottery option - whilst putting lots of noses out of joint for a period - will actually benefit the quality of all schools long term.
Rob Holtom, Uxbridge, Middx.

In North Shropshire the only option we had, was state selective girls school 30 miles distant or local comprehensive, which is 27th out of 27 in N Shropshire. We were lucky in having a very bright daughter who is now travelling 300 miles a week to school.

Parental choice is a total fallacy for the majority. When every school is a specialist in this field or that, none are special.
Paul, UK

School choice is not happening. My child has just started secondary school and was given our 6th choice exactly as we were told at the school meeting. We were told that you were to choose 6 schools but one of the schools must be the nearest one to you wether you liked the school or not. Also told that the school nearest to you would be the one offered. That was exactly what happened to the majority of my childs friends they all got the school closet to where they lived.

We purposely put the school closest to us last in the choice in the hope that he would have got one of the better schools but no he got school closest.
I.Knight, Bromley

We are in the middle of the application process now, as my son is Year 6 and due to go to secondary next year. We tried to move to a catchment of better schools, but we were too late, all houses were rented/sold months earlier and there are none left in our price range. It is infuriating that my sons future depends on how much I can afford to pay for a house. I think the fairest admission would be by ability (like 11+ or similar) - then at least it would have nothing to do with parent's finances.

Academic children could go to academic schools and perhaps more NVQ based courses could be offered to less academic ones - everyone wins. As it is, we have non-academic kids disrupting the learning of everyone while they are being forced to do the subjects they're not even remotely interested in. And I work in a school, so I know first hand how things are.
Sanja Barkovic-Parsons, Southampton, UK

As a parent of a child at a CTC, I believe the banding system used to ensure those offered a school place are representative of the range applicants, and the school is as fully comprehensive as possible, is the fairest method of allocating places in over-subscribed schools. However no system or legislation can give equal opportunity to the children of parents who fail to take any interest in their education, even if bands are subsequently geared to the ability range of the community rather than actual appilcants.

How can we expect any 'fit all' application system alone to counteract a lifetime of parental incompetence for some children? Wherever they are educated the low expectations of their peers and families will affect whether they are able to grasp any opportunities offered.

To ensure all are able to access high quality state education, the hard work must surely begin with lessons in parenting, both at school, antenatal and postnatal classes, so that all future children can benefit from parents dedicated to their best interests.
l Taylor, Telford, Shropshire

All the primary schools within 10 miles of my home are over subscribed - even the bad and ugly. A person in the LEA - albeit jokingly - advised me to move house. Despite our household paying �18,000 worth of taxes for the financial year 2003-2004, my child may not obtain a place at a state primary school within 10 miles of our home. Sums up this absurd state education system wouldn't you agree?
Laura, UK

As a veteran of comparable US schooling experiences, I have to say - trying to allocate a few places at good schools is a zero-sum game which will hurt as many parents and children as it helps. Far better to apply government resources to increase the number of good schools, to reduce the number of underserved pupils rather than merely apportioning the misery.
Sam, Los Angeles, USA

A few years ago I sent my first child to a nursery within a school, I had to buy a uniform, at the time I lived near the school but when I tried to get him there he was refused a place. I was then told I did not have to buy a uniform and that there were no guarantees of a place. I took my claim to a dispute, but was still turned down. I named a few people who fiddled the system by using grand-parents addresses but our local education department refused to listen. My child was left without a place for six months.

There are people out there using false addresses to get their children in a school. It is not fair on genuine people. Where is the justice? I know what it is like. Local education authorities do not take schooling seriously, they are just doing A job, sadly not the right job. People should have unexpected visits to prove where they live
Denise Lane, Torquay,Devon

I recall banding being used when I moved from primary to secondary in 1990. I don't think it really worked as the middle-class parents tended to send their children to faith schools, even though they were a long bus ride away. Equality cannot be reached unless the middle-classes are stopped from choosing selective education in the guise of faith schools.
Lisa, London

Parental choice is impossible for all, and not even what most of us want. What we want is a good education for our children. We want choice when it gives us the ability to opt out of failing schools. Instead of tinkering with choice, how about fixing the failing schools? Also, why the unhealthy obsession with the middle class making sure that their children get a good education? This is a good thing, for heavens sake. Parents who take an interest and make sure that their children are properly educated are not the problem.

Leave them alone, and instead pour extra money and resources into areas where this is not happening naturally. If the middle classes start flocking in, then wonderful, mission accomplished! Also, let's please consider the knock on affect some of these schemes will have on traffic. Driving kids hither and yon, creates congestion and fat children who are driven everywhere.
Karin, London, UK

I think that parents should not have any choice they should be allocated a school based on walking distance only. Any other criteria e.g. religion or academic ability should be banned. The size of the school should be dictated by local needs and traffic. Nobody seems to remember that half of all peak time traffic is parents driving there kids to school which is bad for both the environment and the kids. A local school should be that and under this system people like the Blairs wouldn't be able to manipulate the system to get there kids into the best schools.
Robert Deer, Weybridge

In Birmingham, the council, the government and the church authorities need to take urgent action. Parental choice has exacerbated an existing situation of a few grammar schools left over from the post-war arrangements, mixed with some very successful (academically) Catholic secondary schools. The result in Birmingham is that some schools have all black and Asian pupils, and others have predominantly white pupils. This in not good for community cohesion, and I can clearly see another Oldham in the making.
Meriel, Birmingham

If the government concentrated on making all schools equally good, instead of pouring the money into some selected schools only, leaving others to sink, we would avoid this problem. However, this is not part of the political agenda.
M. Thompson, Tonbridge, Kent

Yet again people seem to want to attack the so called "middle class" who care enough about their chidren that they take notice of entrance criteria and take appropriate action even if that action is to inconvenience themselves by moving home. The government should remember that these interested individuals are also the ones that can be bothered to vote at general elections!
Gordon Johnston, Southampton England

How about letting schools decide their own admission strategies and taking it out of the hands of the government?
Henry, Cambridge

"Banding" seems to be the fairest way forward. However, in areas where selective schools remain (such as Kent) you would never get a representative proportion of each band as the grammars 'cream off' the top quartile.

Unless selective schools become 'all-ability' this system is, like all others, doomed to failure.
Blanche , Kent