Education choice in action

There have been a fair few announcements coming from the Department for Education recently. While Michael Gove’s recent changes to the schools admission code, which include allowing successful schools to expand, may not have led the news agenda, they have certainly be causing excitement in suburbs across the land. The change allows - for the first time since 1964 - the expansion of grammar schools, by enabling existing grammar schools to expand by creating annexes or satellite sites in new locations. 

Parents in a number of towns, including Sevenoaks (Kent) and Newton Abbot (Devon) are already seizing on the change with proposals and campaigns to encourage existing grammar schools to establish new sites in their towns.
This excitement is not surprising. Here at NatCen Social Research, the findings from our latest British Social Attitudes survey  show that while 68% of the British public believe that parents have a ‘right to choose’ their child’s school, 63% also feel that parents ought to be sending their children to the nearest school. Michael Gove’s change means that parents have spotted a rare opportunity to get the school of their choice, where they want it.

The irony is that in Sevenoaks, where I live, this change sees two Government education policies – both aimed at increasing choice - pitched against each other. A group of local parents and teachers had already been developing proposals for a Christian school under the Government’s free school initiative. That proposal now faces stiff competition from the grammar school bid as both have their eyes fixed on the same vacant school site. Each is now battling to win parents’ votes.  It isn’t clear who will win, but active engagement of parents in the process can only be to the good.

Education choice in action