Agreed with everything you said Dave, until this bit: >Make individual schools more accountable to the communities they serve, and make a positive effort to allow all parents a voice, and the majority will prevail. What with league tables, faith schools and so on, I think schools are bending over backwards to try to serve their communities. They have to, to get bums on seats. It seems that the education system is being run as if the parents were paying customers and of course, the "customer's always right." Well no actually, the customer is always self-interested and the way it is now is a perfect example of our individualistic society. I think we need to shift a bit of power back to the teachers, away from the parents. They are the ones who have to do the work after all! And they are the ones (the good teachers, at least) who have everyone's best interests in mind. Not just darling little Fenella who really is so gifted and deserves more attention than anyone else.