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Parents to trigger school changes | |
(about 1 hour later) | |
Parents in England might be able to trigger council intervention in unsatisfactory local schools under new plans announced by Gordon Brown. | |
Details have yet to be worked out but might involve local authorities surveying parental opinion. | |
If it were negative, councils would then have to get good schools to help out the weaker ones in federations. | |
The idea, after a tough week for the prime minister, is a response to Tory plans to let parents set up schools. | |
Speaking in south London at a federation of two schools under an executive head, Mr Brown said the drive for world class schools in Britain required a more strategic role for government. | |
Response | |
"So we will look at how local authorities can improve their knowledge of what parents want and how satisfied they are with their local schools and where there is significant dissatisfaction with the pattern of secondary school provision, and where standards across an area are too low - then the local authority will be required to act. | |
"This could mean either the creation of a federation of schools, an expansion of good school places or, in some cases, the establishment of entirely new schools." | |
As usual Mr Brown talked about Britain but in the UK's devolved education systems his proposals would apply only to England. | |
And the idea is still in the planning stage. The Department for Children, Schools and Families was not able to say how it would operate in practice. | |
Parents can already invite Ofsted inspections - but only in schools where they have children. | |
The new idea is that they could require an intervention in other local schools too. | |
Details will be in a white paper due to be published next month which will also include proposals for school "report cards". | |
These would assign an overall score based on a range of factors such as test results and an assessment of pupils' well-being as well as the views of parents and children. | |
Mr Brown said: "A good education for every child is no longer just desirable it is indispensable. | |
"If we don't invest in the future we have no future." | |
Mr Brown's initiative follows a difficult week politically in which he had to abandon a proposal for MPs' expenses reform and suffered a surprise defeat in the Commons on the issue of Gurkhas' settlement rights. | |
Some cabinet ministers have been coming to his defence after speculation about his leadership in newspaper articles over the weekend. | |
The general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, John Dunford, said the parent power proposal was "completely unnecessary". | |