Like most grant-maintained headteachers, Robert Allen does not begin to understand why the other 95 per cent of schools resent the unfairness of the GM system (TES Letters, October 21.
Of course we could join the GM heads in getting our noses in the trough of access to funds denied to other schools.
Of course we could join in a system where more than 10 per cent of their schools admit to dumping children they don’t want on other schools, with no reference to those schools or the local community.
Many more will covertly sieve parents and children through interview and primary school records so their exam pass and truancy rates will keep them high in the league tables, avoiding families who won’t support the school financially or educationally.
Why won’t we join the club? Because we believe in a community of schools with equal funding and opportunities, not a jungle where the predators have a free run. In Somerset, the LEA protects schools from the worst excesses of Government policy, including an equal share in 12 per cent funding above the Government’s figure. Opted-out schools rely on the others to keep the LEA in existence while they take the advantages of special treatment which would stop as soon as the LEA goes.
ALAN PAUL
6 Fulwood Close
Taunton
Somerset.
