LETTER : Contracts mean selective schools
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Your support makes all the difference.Sir: We write as organisations which have been long involved in supporting ways in which parents and schools might be encouraged to work together to help children learn.
We are opposed to proposals in the Education Bill, currently in committee, which will allow admission authorities, either local education authorities or grant-maintained and voluntary school governing bodies, to make a condition of admission to a school that the parent sign a "parental declaration" - a home-school contract.
Parents already have little real choice. Now they could be obliged to sign a contract if their local school is oversubscribed. Since the parent will be obliged to sign the document before the child is even allowed to go to the school the proposal has nothing to do with encouraging home- school partnership, but is, in fact, another form of selection.
We would like to see the Government encouraging parents and schools to work together. These proposals are more likely to create division than partnership and will lead to more litigation.
MARGARET TULLOCH
Campaign for State Education
JANE MARTIN
Action on Governors' Information and Training
MARGARET McGOWAN
Advisory Centre for Education
PAT BALL
Alliance of Parents and Schools
CHRIS DAVIS
National Association for Primary Education
MARGARET MORRISEY
National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations
ROBIN SIMPSON
National Consumer Council
PAT PETCH
National Governors' Council
London SW20
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