My son selected a school less than 1/2 a mile from where we live in Herts as his 1st choice. He was not offered a place her, nor was he offered a place at his 2nd or 3rd choice schools. Instead he has been offered a place at a school that is not even within the Local Authority Area in which we live. Added to this, I have discovered that at least 5 children who go to his current primary school have been offered a place at the school which was my son's 1st choice, despite the fact that they listed it as their 2nd choice, live further away from it than we do, do not have a sibling there, and do not have special needs... Fair selection criteria ... ? I think not!

Sean Hurley, Rickmansworth, Herts

Brighton & Hove Council have made a huge mistake in intoducing this so called 'lottery' scheme for admissions.

We need more schools NOW, to accomodate all the new developments in the area that will increase the school age population.

The only way, we as parents, can force a re-think from the council, is Parent Power. Mass protest, and boycot the inappopriate offers made to parents.
As we are a large part of the population of Brighton and Hove, the council will have no alternative than to make changes for the better.
We voted for this council, and we can just as easily vote them out !
PARENT POWER.

Paul Rose, Brighton & Hove, UK

The lottery system is ridiculous because it would mean that a child may be unable to attend a school on their doorstep and instead would have to be shipped across their town or city to attend another school! How exactly does this help with
1) childhood obesity (children no longer able to walk to school)
2) global warming (increased transport usage)
3) failing schools (it just spreads around the problem of disruptive children fro the current failing schools to the good ones)

Ever heard of joined up politics?

Andrew Brown, derby, UK

A lottery is the preferred socialist mechanism for everything as the ultimate piece of bureaucracy. The government has made hospital admissions a lottery, in effect, and would like to do the same with schools. At university level, someone hoping to go to Oxford does not mind a place at Cambridge but would not want the University of Bolton. The same is true of schools. The truth is there are now so very few state schools that even attempt to give a decent education that parents are desperate.

George, Bolton, UK

bring in education vouchers - its the only way

Mehtab, new southgate/london,

Until schools are able to provide an education that is appropriate to the needs, aptitudes and interests of each pupil, there can never be any real choice. Since they can never achieve this, schools are not the solution.
Schools' performances are judged against mainly academic criteria of 5 'good' GCSEs. These measurements cannot possibly represent the entire breadth of possible educational experience and the criteria are thus quite specious. They measure what can be conveniently measured to produce statistics that prove that the government is good and that we should continue to vote for them.
It is not the choice of school that is important, it is the choice of education. 'Education in this country will never function effectively until pupils, at least at secondary level, can choose their areas of study and do not spend every day wastefully being forced to learn much of what they do not want to know.' (A. J. Marsden letter to TES).
For a real solution visit www.wotnoschool.com

John Harrison, Rye, E. Sussex

Its al abit messy,so the d.n.a data base the government wants cant come soon enough and all the decision about school place can be made at birth by the government,

michael joseph heavey, cahersiveen>adams towns, madness

How's this for joined up Government.

Kids won't be going to their local schools and are forced to be driven across towns to other schools while kids from the other side of town are driven to the first childs local school.

But don't drive your car it isn't green and pollutes the planet adn we will continue to tax you heavily for using cars.

It's the Labour ministers that need Education, Education, Education.

Will someone please rid me of this tiresome government.

Salty, Reading,

Parental choice? We live in Croydon & my daughter hasn't been offered a place at any of the six state schools selected by us, let alone our first choice. This result is an enormous blow to her self-esteem. Presumably, we didn't meet the strict religious criteria employed by the Church Schools on our list. However, as my daughter points out, her behaviour is far more "Christian" than many of her classmates who have been awarded Church School places! A lottery would, at least, have been even-handed.

JanK, Croydon, England

Parents do have an automatic choice on where their children are taught - state or private, this is the only choice that they need. If the taxpayer is paying through heavy taxation, then 'other peoples' children, educated at the expence of all, can like it or lump it. When I left school at age fourteen, there was none of this picking and choosing. Poor families were forced to ensure that their children were earning to keep the family alive. The bright ones that might have done well had they stayed later, as they are required to do now, have probably made successful careers anyway. What tosh!

Derek Clifton, Andover, Hampshire, England

“A decade ago a child had a one in two chance of going to a low-performing school – with less than 30 per cent of pupils getting five GCSEs, including English and maths. That’s down to a quarter.”

And that's 11 years after Labour were elected on the promise of Education, Education, Education.

martinG, reading, UK

This government is forever purporting to offer us more choice. What most of us really want is for our children to attend the nearest school, in the knowledge that this school is a good and well-resourced. Similarly, we don't necessarily want to have our in-growing toe nail removed in a city whose hospital specialises in toe-nail surgery - rather that our own local hospital is good, safe, and clean.

Fiona McWilliam, Brighton, East Sussex

Appeals panels are too often persuaded against parents on the grounds that admitting more children to a school than its official capacity is not economic. If schools really do want to admit more children, they will find a way by appointing additional teachers and finding temporary free standing accommodation and sharing outside spaces with other schools. It is difficult to predict how many teachers, laboratories, playing fields etc as populations move, but it is possible with better forward planning. Authorities know the good schools and those that are consistently over-subscribed and could easily accommodate more children in these schools with a bit of effective planning.

sk, East Sussex, East Sussex

If the concentration of effort was to ensure all schools were of an equal high standard then choice would be unnecessary. The fallout from that would be more kids walking to school and kids living amongst their school friends which in turn would mean less car use all round. Parent choice is no better than any other system of placement and worse than most and should be scrapped.

mike gee, bournemouth, uk