Thousands of schools set to follow Brighton with admission lotteries

Growing numbers of state schools are expected to back the introduction of a lottery to determine who wins places at the top-performing secondaries.

Labour-controlled Brighton and Hove Council has become the first to introduce random selection for places at its most popular schools.

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The system has the support of the powerful Specialist Schools and Academies Trust, which represents 2,600 of the 2,950 state secondaries in England. Its chairman, Sir Cyril Taylor, a senior government adviser on the academies programme, said: "We strongly support it. What typically happens if a school is popular is it shortens its catchment area. Therefore the only alternative is selection by mortgage as house prices near the school rise."

He said the trust would be recommending its adoption in guidance on admissions soon to be issued to schools. Sir Cyril said he wanted academies to introduce a "fair banding" system - choosing an equal number of pupils from each of several different ability bands. If it was oversubscribed - as all the privately sponsored academies are - the eventual winners would be chosen by lottery. The lottery system has also been given the blessing of ministers. A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said: "Random allocation is one criterion that schools may use to allocate places to oversubscribed schools to give pupils fair and equal access."

Yesterday's decision by Brighton and Hove Council caused an outcry from parents' leaders. Many headteachers privately believe it will lead to many middle-class parents opting for independent schools if they cannot get their children into top state schools.

Margaret Morrissey, spokeswoman for the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations, said: "Isn't it a sad indictment of the education system that in 2007 we have got to decide a school place with a lottery?

"Why are we condemning parents for trying to do what they think is best for their children?"

Parents in Brighton have signed a 4,000-strong petition against the scheme and some are said to be considering legal moves to stop its introduction. Specialists in property warned the move would lead to a slump in house prices as - at present - homes near to top performing schools can fetch considerably more than others near by.

Richard Carroll, head of residential property at the law firm Mills and Reeve, said: "Under the new policy a lot of the property purchased at an inflated value due to it being inside the catchment area of a good school may devalue if children are no longer to be offered places according to their proximity to the school. This may leave many parents severely out of pocket if they have overstretched themselves to buy the property.

"The effect on house prices may be even more severe if hot-spot areas suddenly become less desirable due to the removal of the catchment area."

Pat Hawkes, who chairs Brighton and Hove's children, families and schools committee, said: "No school admissions system can make 100 per cent of parents happy but I believe strongly that this new system will be fairer to more people than the current one."

Sarah Teather, the Liberal Democrat education spokeswoman, said: "When some schools are so heavily oversubscribed, a lottery is a legitimate system for managing admissions in some areas.

"But parents will despair that access to quality education is so unequal that a lottery is needed. Ensuring your child gets into a good school shouldn't have to be decided on luck."

Under Brighton and Hove's plan, which will come into force next year, an "electronic ballot" will be introduced at popular schools, replacing the current system of giving places to children who live nearest to the school. The authority will be divided into six separate catchment areas - with pupils expected to attend a school in their area. The lottery will kick in where any of the schools are oversubscribed.

Evidence that proximity to the school as an admissions criterion was pricing poorer families out of winning places at top performing schools led ministers to introduce a new code of conduct on admissions - which came into force yesterday.

It bans interviews with parents - claiming they allow schools to introduce covert selection - and says a lottery is one method that could be used to introduce a fairer system.

"We're determined that all children, regardless of their background, must have a fair and equal chance of getting into a school of their choice," a Department for Education spokesman said.

"That's why we delivered a new mandatory code to crack down on unfair admissions policies and prevent schools cherry-picking the brightest pupils."

A statement from Brighton and Hove Council said: "High priority has been given to getting a better balance in schools of children from a variety of backgrounds."

The move by Brighton and Hove is not the first time that a lottery has been introduced to determine admissions in the UK.

Haberdashers' Aske's in Lewisham, south London, a former city technology college now turned into one of Tony Blair's privately sponsored academies, has been operating such a system successfully for some time. It has 2,500 parents competing for some 200 places.

Lotteries are also used in the US, Canada and some Scandinavian countries.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders - which represents secondary school heads - argued it could work successfully in area with a group of successful schools.

However, he said it would exacerbate "perceived inequalities" if used in areas served by one top performing school and several low performers.

Today's lesson: A recent history of our education system

1944

The present education system stems from the 1944 Education Act which, spurred by a groundbreaking report from Sir William Beveridge, below left, on social welfare, introduced compulsory secondary school education for all under a selective system of grammar schools for those who passed an 11-plus test and secondary modern schools for the rest (the majority).

A third tier of technological schools was advocated but largely ignored.

1966-79

The Wilson government paved the way for the introduction of a comprehensive education system after concerns that the existing system was divisive and ended up with too many children being written off as failures at the age 11.

The drive towards an all-in comprehensive system continued with Shirley Williams, below centre, as Education Secretary until 1979. Just a handful of local authorities ignored the Government's directives. Ironically, Margaret Thatcher, below right, during the Heath government was the Education Secretary to preside over the closure of the largest number of grammar schools.

1987

After many years of neglecting education, the Thatcher government turned its attention to reforming the state education system. It introduced the concept of city technology colleges - the forerunners of Tony Blair's academies. They were privately sponsored and allowed control over admissions (although they could not select through testing). She also allowed schools to opt out of local authority control - provided parents voted in favour of it - and become grant-maintained by central government again with control over admissions.

1997

Labour swept to power with a pledge to abolish grant-maintained schools.

However, Mr Blair was convinced by Sir Cyril Taylor, the architect of the city technology colleges, that these were the schools of the future. As a result, he backed a move towards sponsored specialist secondary schools in a range of subject areas and introduced the academies project. Eventually, there will be 400 privately sponsored, state-financed academies - all in charge of their own admissions procedures. There are now also 2,600 specialist secondary schools, leaving a rump of about 400 schools in neither category.

2006

Mr Blair's education legislation aimed to introduce a third tier of sponsored schools - the "trust" schools - which would again be independent of local authority admission procedures. However, pressure built up among backbench Labour MPs who claimed these new breeds of schools were using covert selection techniques to choose the brightest pupils. Also, well-off parents were buying property near the best-performing schools - thus ensuring their children got a place in them. To stop this, the Government sought to introduce a new code on admissions.

2007

The new code comes into force. It became obligatory for schools to abide by it yesterday. It bans interviews with parents and says "random choice", ie a lottery, is one method that schools could choose to ensure a fair admissions policy.

The local innovators

Richmond on Thames

Announced at the start of the year that drivers of 4x4s and other high-performance cars would have to pay three times as much for a resident's parking permit. The old £100 flat fee has been scrapped. Owners of electric cars can park free of charge, while gas-guzzlers pay £300.

Durham

County council introduced congestion charge in 2002, charging £2 between 10am and 4pm to use the road through historic city centre to the Norman cathedral, the castle and the market place. That pays for a bus service around the city and a shopmobility scheme. The congestion zone may be extended.

Woking

In 2002, became the first local authority to adopt a climate-change strategy on a scale likely to meet the target by the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, of a 60 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2050. Woking also provides green energy to business and residential customers.

London

Introduced the congestion charge in February 2003, charging £5 entry to a zone within the inner ring road. Raised to £8 in 2005 and, on 19 February, the zone was extended to include most of Kensington and Chelsea, and Westminster. Congestion levels in the zone were 22 per cent lower than in 2002.

Nottinghamshire

Established a fund worth £1m to invest in schemes that would promote energy efficiency and could also save money in the long term. Emissions of greenhouse gasses from the buildings run by the county council have been reduced by 25 per cent.

Sadie Gray