Recently we received an “invitation” to a Christmas Extravaganza from our five-year-old son’s school. The letter asked for permission for our son to attend and requested a £3 fee for each adult accompanying him (for fundraising). The school phoned to say that the extravaganza was part of the arts curriculum. We confirmed that we would not be attending. We felt that, if it was part of the curriculum, the event should be incorporated into the school day, and also that we should not have to pay to attend. Can schools do this?

Diana Hardstaff, West Lothian

Essential curriculum teaching should take place in school time and it is up to you to decide how your time and your son’s is spent outside the school day. I suspect the reason why the school is so keen for parents to attend is partly because they will raise funds. Fundraising is, of course, an acceptable tradition in British education but this hard sell is not.

Our six-year-old grandson goes to Princes Mead school in Winchester where he is very happy. It is a private school. When he was enrolled there were 14 children in the class, four of whom were boys. Unfortunately, over the last year the other three boys have left, leaving our grandson as the only boy in the class. What would you advise in this situation – should our grandson be moved?

Jane Groves, by e-mail

The educationalist in me acknowledges that this situation is not ideal. The ex-pupil of a single sex boys’ grammar school gasps in amazement at the lad’s good fortune, but he is only six and might, I suppose, not be that keen on girls.

If he is happy and making progress, I would be inclined to keep him at the school and see how he gets on. Other boys may join the class and he will be able, presumably, to play with other boys in breaks. The quality of the teaching matters more than the gender balance.

My son is doing GCSE English coursework. For one English literature assignment the pupils watched a film, but never read the original book. They were asked to compare the film to the book based on notes given in class. In another assignment my son typed out a page of materials given by the teacher and gave it in as the first part of his coursework. I told him it was plagiarism. The teacher ticked it and was happy. Am I just too old to understand modern education?

J A F, by e-mail

You are – and so am I!

If you have a question for Chris Woodhead, write to him c/o The Sunday Times, 1 Pennington Street, London E98 1ST or e-mail him, with your name and address, at education-questions@ sunday-times.co.uk

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