Unless they are a parent of a three- or four-year-old, today, National Offer Day, has little significance for the vast majority of teachers. Families will find out which primary school their children will attend, but in schools there is no mad rush to the office to find out which children have secured a place.

Teachers don’t get to choose who arrives in their class in September, and rightly so.

But teachers should take note of the fallout of National Offer Day for primary schools - it will highlight how misguided government policy currently is and it will also be teachers at the forefront of dealing with the (likely numerous) unhappy parents that will result from those policies. 

A true choice? 

The “choice agenda” advanced by successive governments has certainly encouraged parents to adopt a consumer mindset when it comes to finding a school for their child and, in this age of transparency, there is no shortage of information for them to draw upon. A quick internet search alone will provide parents with access to the latest Ofsted report, the school’s published test data and any recent media coverage, be it good or bad. All this is available before a parent even steps foot in a school.

While most parents I know still simply want an excellent school close to home to send their children to, it is hard to argue that the extension of choice is in itself a bad thing. However, true choice depends on two factors: there needs to be enough school places in each area for every child and those schools need to be of a high standard.

When it comes to the first of these, the reality is that the lack of a coherent national strategy on school places is actively working against parental choice.

The government’s obsession with the free school project means that new schools are not always being built where they are most needed.  If the education system was awash with funds such an approach might be an affordable luxury, but the DfE budget is at breaking point. With a £3bn black hole in school funding, surely the government has a moral obligation not to devolve responsibility for providing the basics needed in education to the whim of the free market?

A change in tack

The government should not be spending considerable sums of public money on new schools where there are already enough places while in other parts of the country families struggle to find a place and know that their child may be taught in a class of over 30 pupils, in a building in desperate need of repair.

Local authorities have been placed in an almost impossible position, too. The government still expects them to be responsible for guaranteeing enough school places, but they have very limited power. The inability to instruct academies to expand their pupil numbers and the lack of a strong say over where free schools are built means that local authorities are working with at least one hand tied behind their back.

Any government has three fundamental responsibilities when it comes to schools: making sure there are enough places for pupils, guaranteeing a good supply of teachers and providing them with adequate funding. In all three of three of these areas, there remains significant work to be done.

Until a coherent strategy emerges, National Offer Day will always be one where, for many parents, the concept of “choice” could feel completely illusory.