Tracey-Ann Ross is furious. Her nine-year-old son Alfie is in the vanguard of a hugely controversial experiment that could soon sweep the country.

Last week, despite angry protests by parents outside the town hall where the vote was taking place, Brighton became the first council in England to decide to allocate places in its most popular schools by lottery. The move preempts a new admissions code issued by the government that comes into force next month. “ I’m worried that because of the lottery, instead of going to Dorothy Stringer, his nearest [good] school, Alfie could end up at Hove Park, four miles away, which has a poor academic record,” Ross explains.

Ross, a supply teacher and mother of two boys, was one of hundreds of parents gathered in the wind and rain last Tuesday as the council agreed the new system in an equally stormy meeting. A petition of 5,500 signatures has been collected, a campaign has been set up, there is even talk of trying to overthrow the decision in the High Court by judicial review.

So why has Brighton taken a step described by one critic as “mad”? Among its eight secondary schools there are some good ones with above average exam results and some bad ones few want to send their child to. In other words it’s like everywhere else: there are simply not enough decent schools nationwide to meet demand.

Last week more than 600,000 families across England were told which schools their 11-year-olds had been allocated from September. Thousands of children will have been disappointed. Appeals by disgruntled families will probably climb again this year: one in ten appeal, and the success rate is running at one in three.

The lottery system is the supposed solution to the mess of Britain’s state schools. You can’t appeal a lottery — it’s completely fair, says one supporter. And more importantly it makes it almost impossible for middle-class families to “play the system” and thereby monopolise the best places.

At the moment getting into a good school depends largely on where you live in its “catchment area”. The closer to the gates, the shorter the odds. Wealthy parents can “buy” into a successful school by moving into an expensive house right next door. By contrast, in Brighton, from next September, all eight secondary schools will be placed in one of six postcode-based areas and an electronic ballot will select pupils for any school that is oversubscribed.

The idea that the middle classes are monopolising the cream of the country’s schools is one reason for the new nationwide admissions code that comes into force next month. It backs the idea of a lottery for popular schools: “Random allocation of school places can be good practice . . . It can widen access to schools for those unable to afford to buy houses near to favoured schools,” it says.

So will other councils copy Brighton’s example? Almost certainly. In fact, the system is already in operation in the capital where a softly spoken school head started the ball rolling two years ago. Elizabeth Sidwell is chief executive of two schools, including Haberdashers’ Aske’s Hatcham college, in south London — where 12

children chase every place and around a quarter are allocated by lottery.

Sidwell says she copied the lottery idea from America and discussed it with David Miliband, the then minister for school standards, first. “If you solely use distance from the school as the admissions criteria you do play into the hands of families who can buy a place through owning a house nearby . . . there are expensive houses close to the school that cost more than £1m,” she says.

And up in Derby parents may also have to contend with Lady Luck. Ray Ruszczynski, the head of popular Chellaston comprehensive, where 450 pupils vie for 260 places, says that his school is consulting locally on whether to use a lottery to make the final cut. Ruszczynski thinks others will follow suit: “I do expect this to become the norm,” he says.

They are words that will panic thousands of middle-class families, who thought that when they bought their carefully chosen homes they were also buying a free place at a good school for their child.

A world class way to ruin schools

You have a 10-year-old. There is one decent school within travelling distance of your home. It is oversubscribed. What do you do? Well, if you live in Brighton, you start praying. In its wisdom, Brighton education authority has decided that admissions to secondary schools should become a lottery.

The argument is that the government’s new admissions code, which will also ban selection by interview, is fairer. The middle class can no longer buy houses at inflated prices in the catchment area of the good school or smarm up to the head teacher. Everybody has an equal chance. It sounds plausible but it is likely to destroy precisely the schools everyone wants to attend.

What do these schools do? Some select on academic ability, others like the London Oratory, the school Tony Blair’s children travelled across London to attend, look for a commitment to a religious faith and parents willing to support the school’s efforts. A school which loses control of its pupil intake will cease to be the school it was.

The prime minister promised us a world class education system. Having failed to deliver, his policy is to spread the misery. Schools like the Oratory will suffer, but his children have left, so who cares? Brighton’s decision to rely on a lottery exemplifies Blair’s failure.

The best we can do is ensure everyone gets a look in, they are saying. The failure of public policy is cloaked in the rhetoric of equal opportunity.

Chris Woodhead

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