Lucky dip education

Trudi Davies
The Politics Show South East

Protestors make it perfectly clear

Is there a solution to the annual problem created by secondary school admissions?

Should we allocate schools on the basis of ability, as demonstrated by the 11+ system still operating in Kent?

Or perhaps distance from the school is the fairest yardstick, ensuring a local education and a reduction in pollution from transport.

Should schools admissions be socially engineered, to create a mix of backgrounds and abilities within each school environment?

Perhaps a more random system is the answer, something more like... a lottery.

Brighton lottery

Brighton and Hove City Council have tried just that, for two of their school catchment areas - and they have hailed it a "great success".

Some 78% of children got their first choice school, and 96.5% were allocated one of their three choices.

These figures are claimed to be a "clear improvement" by Conservative Councillor, Vanessa Brown, Chairwoman of the city's Children and Young People's Trust.

In Kent, around 70% received their first choice school and 95% were allocated a school named on their application form.

On the surface, it looks as though the councillor is right to claim success for the new system.

Heartbreak for parents

Michael Gove, the Shadow Minister for Education, has said that lotteries had led to "greater heartbreak" among parents and pledged to scrap it when the Tories come to power.

It is their future they are worried about

Whilst they may have "dithered" over their view on grammar schools, the Tories have consistently denounced the random allocation of school places and the "demonisation" of parents trying to second-guess the system.

Mr Gove went on to say: "We do not blame commuters for overcrowded trains: we know it is the fault of those in charge that there aren't enough places.

"So why blame parents when good schools are oversubscribed?"

Tory support

Odd then, that the Tories in Brighton have ploughed on with the scheme.

Councillor Brown, who voted against the adoption of the system in 2007, finds herself in the bizarre position of implementing and defending a Labour policy that her own party will seek to abolish.

Ironically, this week, a research team based at Newcastle University has suggested that a lottery system may not help children from poorer homes at all.

The leader of the study, Helen Jarvis, claimed: "Research suggests that lotteries of oversubscribed school places would produce the worst of both worlds: greater educational polarisation and longer, more environmentally damaging car journeys to distant schools by middle-class parents".

Labour Party aloof

The national Labour Party has refused to be drawn on the specifics of the South East's school places.

The lottery system is seriously in question

They are in favour of random selection, but Ed Balls, the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families, is more inclined to talk about a continuing commitment to improve all schools for all pupils.

If the party want to know more about the views of parents caught up in the new selection process though they need go no further than the Number 10 website.

Under e-petitions, the proposal that reads: "We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Provide desperately needed funding to create a new secondary school for Brighton & Hove which will better enable children to attend a truly local school and remove the significant discontent currently felt by all local parents at the lack of an adequate provision for secondary education in the city", has already attracted over 400 signatures.

Post codes and parents' aspirations for schools sometimes do not match

Escalating applications

In the meantime, Brighton College, a leading independent school in the area, is quoting a 43% rise in applications and it has announced the creation of a new middle school to cope with the numbers.

On the bright side, if all the people that can pay choose to pay for their children's education, it should reduce the need for a lottery in future years.

Is a lottery the fairest way to allocate school places?

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Also this week...

Free for all

We join up with our network programme in a look a volunteering.

There are literally thousands of possible volunteering opportunities in our region, with nearly 1,400 around the town of Uckfield alone.

Paul visits a local charity shop to find out the local perspective

It is something that Gordon Brown is keen to promote.

And Alistair Darling put the government's money where it's mouth is last week with an extra £80m to help small, local community organisations continue a "...culture of giving and volunteering [that] defines Britain as a fair and compassionate society".

But with so many opportunities on offer, are we becoming too reliant on free labour and what would happen in the South East if all the volunteers failed to turn up?

Paul tries a few alternative careers this week and Rosey Eggar, Development Manager at Sussex Downs Volunteer Centre, joins him in the studio.

We would like to hear your views on any of this week's issues.

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The Politics Show for the South East, with Jon Sopel and Paul Siegert on Sunday 09 March at 12:00 GMT on BBC One.