WHY is it that the parents of Dunnington feel that their children deserve preferential treatment in the allocation of secondary school places?

More importantly, why does your paper consider their 'campaign' so newsworthy? Recently, parents of children in the Woodthorpe area of York have endured considerable uncertainty and anxiety over the transfer to secondary school.

During each of the past few years, only a small percentage of children attending Woodthorpe School have been allocated their first choice, with some even failing to gain a place at their second preference.

Though all parents have the natural right to seek the best education possible for their children, such advantages should not be pursued by trying to secure a 'block booking' at a particular school and compromising the freedom of choice and access which other parents will be seeking to exercise.

I hope that the education authority will resist the pressure of such 'campaigns', which seek to promote narrow, sectional interests, and that it will continue with its plans to implement a system offering fair and reasonable access to high quality secondary education to all children, irrespective of where they live.

Dr Jeff Craine,

Governor,

Woodthorpe Primary School,

York.

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