Parents Anger Over 'Illusion Of School Choice'

10.36.32am GMT Tue 2nd Mar 2004

This year large numbers of local parents are expressing extreme frustration at their inability to get their children into the secondary schools of their choice despite, in some cases, close links between their primary schools and the preferred secondary.

Vincent Cable, MP, has reported "huge dissatisfaction" in Hampton, Hampton Hill and West Twickenham amongst parents whose children have been turned away from Teddington and Orleans schools and Waldegrave.

Vincent Cable said: "It is simply a matter of logic that when some schools are perceived to be better than others, not everyone will achieve their preferred choice. But what makes people angry is the illusion of choice: being told that there is a choice when there isn't. Parents at Stanley Junior were told that, if they applied to Teddington, their link school, they would be admitted. Then they discovered that there were not places. The position is particularly bad in Hampton where parents of boys have virtually no chance of being admitted to Teddington, nor girls at Waldegrave, but every year they have to go through the charade of application, rejection and appeal".

"The council will have to decide whether it wants parental choice or not. If it does there will have to be greater flexibility in opening up new classes in popular schools. If it doesn't, it will need to be more honest with parents that they should expect to be allocated the neighbourhood school and plan their lives accordingly".