ABSTRACT

School choice is the holy grail sought by many politicians. While teachers are often sceptical of its benefits and possibilities, there is undoubtedly a huge appetite among parents for a greater say in choosing their child's school. An opinion poll for The Economist in April 2004 found that 76 per cent of parents felt it was very or fairly important to them to have greater choice over which state school their family attended. 1 However, the political promise of greater choice is often hard to translate into reality on the ground. Parents may be happy to send their child to the neighbourhood primary school, where polls suggest they are also happier with the standards on offer. It is in secondary education that the difficulties most often arise. Official statistics from the DfES show that parents’ appeals were heard in 13,200 cases in 2003 because they missed out on their preferred primary school. And 46,200 appeals were heard over secondary school places – affecting around one in ten 11-year-olds. Only a third were decided in the parents’ favour. 2 This is one reason why seven per cent of parents have their children privately educated and one in ten children in London goes to an independent school.