REGARDING your editorials (LET, March 31 and April 9) about the allocation of secondary school places by Blackburn with Darwen Local Education Authority, your references to 'social engineering,' 'a determination to fill places behind desks' and 'directing children from middle class areas to working class schools' are misleading and do nothing to help disappointed parents and children.

The situation is straightforward - 342 parents stated a first preference for a place for their child at Pleckgate High School and only 240 places were available.

The education authority is therefore obliged to offer those places strictly according to its published admissions criteria, which are made known to all parents before they indicate their preferences.

The criteria used to allocate the places this year (basically brothers and sisters, medical, social and welfare and the distance) are exactly the same as those used previously in the area by Lancashire County Council. The governing bodies of all the borough's secondary schools were consulted on these criteria last year and none asked for any changes to be made. While I appreciate that some families will be disappointed that they have not obtained a place at Pleckgate as their first preference, I am sure that parents understand that there is a limit to the number of children who can be accommodated in one school. The authority's job is to ensure that places are allocated fairly, in accordance with previously published criteria. That we have done.

It could be that some places become available before September as parents change their mind and take up offers elsewhere. These places will then be re-allocated to children who had initially been refused a place.

In addition, parents have the right to appeal to an independent panel for a place. This panel will take into account individual circumstances and may award places over and above the authority's initial allocation. Parents who have been refused places at Pleckgate have been advised of their right of appeal and the authority will continue to provide advice and information to ensure that as many parents as possible are aware of their legals rights and the options which face them.

I can assure you and your readers that my officers are applying the same policy and criteria as Lancashire in previous years, that these are entirely in accordance with the legal requirements and the published policy and that there is no question whatsoever of any form of social engineering in the process.

These basic facts could easily have been ascertained by your newspaper before printing these articles and thus avoided the misinformation which only serves to fuel entirely unfounded rumours.

MARK PATTISON, Director of Education and Training, Blackburn with Darwen Council.

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