School places lottery: your views

I believe that the lottery system is doomed to fail. First of all, I undertsand that the poor children cannot get into good schools, but that does not mean to say that the not so good schools do bad. Surely good teachers both work in all schools.

But I strongly believe if parents are working all the hours to pay and live a certain lifesytle to send their children to good schools and pay more for homes surrounding the good schools, this is an individual choice and prefernce and not for the government to decide.

Who the hell are these people to decide where the hell my child goes to school, if this is the case then people will surely be sending their children to private education as the state system is a joke.

I have just bought a house in the West Midlands. I have been told there are no school places available in my area, at all. All the schools are full due to this inept system. I am having to go through the appauling appeals system, I have to say without much hope. I have been advised to ask the Birmingham schools if they have any places. This would not only inconvenience every person in our family, add several hundred pounds to any travel bills we usually generate but it will also immediately socially isolate my child. I cannot figure out why, if your child(ren) are being sent out of your town or possibly even county why transport would not be laid on for them as standard. This is all so the Local Council and Govt. can put ticks in boxes and we get to foot the bill. This system is so ridiculous it beggars belief. While I agree that all children should have a place at a good school & indeed your income should not reflect your I.Q. or that of your child(ren), instead of forcing local people to give up places in local schools, would it not make sense to open up new schools or improve the existing schools which nobody wants their children to go to? They are out there, and they are glaringly obvious because they are the ones with places left. It would certainly take away a lot of resentment and tension in the local area. I think a good dose of common sense is urgently needed.

I totally oppose this! How many extra cars are going to be on the roads taking children to school when they should be walking/cycling to there local one! We've just moved house and its nr to a nice school - does this mean i might still have to get the car out to take her to the other side of town!! All i wanted was to be able to walk my child to school in the fresh air and let her play with local friends in the evening!

Its totally silly! The goverment is ruining the country - putting fuel prices up to stop us using ours cars and then making us use our cars to do the school run! Duh! Senseless!!!!!!!

My only comment would be that siblings would have to still go to the same school. I have three children of infant and junior school age and it would be impossible for me to get them all to school at the same time.

However I do believe that you should not be able to buy your way into a school by buying a house down the road. The system should be fairer.

But if all schools were of an equal level, we wouldnt have this problem at all.

I'm afraid I agree with this system, I live in an area where the schools are very poor, I can't afford to live in a nicer area due to house prices. So this lottery system is the only chance my daughter has to go to a decent school. Without it it means that rich kids go to good schools and kids from poorer backgrounds go to bad schools thus creating a vicious circle.

Mandy :West Sussex
i totally agree with all the above statements. Its a crazy idea and has not been thought out at all. Children could be separated from their friends at previous pre-schools and schools and this will impact on the stress of changing schools.
The transport issue is far from green. And will impact on working families arranging childcare if they get sent to schools a distance away. Its a terrible idea and only hope the government realise they should be tackling poor schools and all the other problems without coming up with these ideas that could potentially further damage the standard of education and stress of family life we have already to cope with in the Uk.

Think the scheme is stupid. On one hand the government are trying to get us out of our cars and walking and using public transport then potentially allocating a school places miles away and not walkable meaning more cars on the road to ferry kids about

Primary school places should be allocated due to distance to the school and secondary where possible.

I think the current admissions criteria is fine based on siblings, proximity, religious denomination etc.

What they should be doing is improving sink estate schools instead of penalising parents trying to do their best for their children.