Free bus travel and the introduction of school choice advisors are among proposals to be introduced by the government to end the school postcode lottery. Children in poorer areas will be entitled to free bus travel to good schools and their parents will have access to Choice Advisors who will take them through the process of applying to popular schools.

The aim is to challenge the current system whereby houses around good state schools become so expensive and the catchment area becomes so small that only the well-off can afford to attend.

Under a new ‘fair banding’ system, schools will be encouraged to test children and share pupils in all areas of ability to reflect their local area. Groups of schools will be allowed to test children and put them into ability bands, sharing out the most and least able so that their intakes reflect the profile of the local authority or national area.

The banding system does have its critics, saying that it could lead to children who live next door to good schools being sent out of the area to a school further away if their banding level is oversupplied in the area.

The Education Secretary, Ruth Kelly, announced the plans yesterday saying the government wanted to help ‘families living on council estates to exercise their choice in as powerful a way as those from more privileged backgrounds…For too long, access to some schools was open only to those who could afford to buy an expensive house next to a good school, while the rest were told to accept what they were given.’ She also suggested that councils might want to set up American-style school bus routes to make the banding system work.

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