John Redwood's Wokingham Times Article
Posted by John Redwood, MP for Wokingham, at 13:13, Thu 22 March 2007:
It’s that time of year when parents are apprehensive about which places will be available for their children at secondary schools. Many parents are keen for their children to obtain a place at a comprehensive school which has a good reputation, often linked to good performance in the league tables for examination passes.
Some schools do consistently achieve better average results than others. This may be owing to differing levels of aptitude in the pupils, but it may also relate to the quality of teaching and the ethos of the school. The sad truth is there are not enough places at the schools which always seem to do well, leaving some parents disappointed.
I have urged Wokingham Council to expand the number of places at the high achieving schools. They have been doing so, as they would like more parents to exercise choice in the way they wish. I have also encouraged them to work with the schools that are less popular, to see what can be done to raise their attractiveness to parents and pupils.
Parents who are seeking a particular school place should take advice from the Council and from the primary school, so they put in the necessary supporting case for their son or daughter in good time, if they need to go to appeal against the original decision.
Wokingham is relatively well off, because our average school performs well by national standards. The problem is more acute in the inner cities, where many children from low income backgrounds have to attend local schools where results have traditionally been weak and where there is not the same enthusiasm for learning and for academic success. This has led the government to suggest the extraordinary idea that in some cases school places could be allocated by ballot, to give children of all backgrounds the same chance of getting a place at a better school.
Some parents contacted me to express their alarm at such an idea. I have from the Minister a letter explaining that it is only one option, and not one which our local Education Authority has to take. I am glad to hear it, and trust Wokingham will not be running educational bingo any time soon.
I do not think we should penalise parents who pay extra for a house in the catchment areas of a good school, or seek to question the bona fides of those who say they belong to a certain faith so their children can go to a faith school. We should instead be helping provide more places parents are proud to accept for their children.
We should also beware about the undue emphasis on exams. As someone who did well out of exams, I have no fundamental disagreement with the notion that children should from time to time be tested to see what they have learned. I do, however, think we now greatly overdo it, and seem to spend a lot of time teaching exam technique rather than the underlying subjects. Serious public exams at 16 and 18 make sense, but serious exams at 14 and 17 as well is over the top. It is putting students off taking the tough subjects like maths, physics, chemistry and some languages, and encouraging more and more reliance on gaming the system to achieve a certain number of qualifications which are not so highly prized by universities or employers.
Commenting on this message is now disabled.