Admissions

11 March 2008

Commenting on the Government's investigation into abuses of the Admissions Code, Steve Sinnott, General Secretary of the National Union of Teachers, Europe’s largest teaching union said:

"It is in no one's interest that schools in some areas currently manipulate school admissions. Ed Balls is right to act against subtle and not so subtle abuses of the Admissions Code. We cannot have a situation where manipulation of the code is fuelling socially segregated schools.

"The Government should also look at other damaging influences on school admissions. School performance tables paint a false picture of some schools underperforming which in turn encourages parental anxiety. The whole idea that parents can choose from a diverse range of schools encourages parents to think, wrongly, that they have unlimited choice.

"Ed Balls said recently that what parents wanted was a good local school. Now is the time for all education policies to be aligned to achieve that goal".