A YORK head teacher at the forefront of a national move to revolutionise the education system is urging parents and teachers to have their say on school reforms.

As The Press reported earlier this month, Huntington School’s John Tomsett is one of about ten head teachers from across the country who have joined together to form the online Head Teachers’ Roundtable. It grew out of frustration with current government educational policy and the Labour opposition response to it.

He said the group had spent the last two weeks preparing a consultation document on curriculum and assessment as an alternative to education secretary Michael Gove’s plans to do away with GCSE exams.

From 2015, the Government plans to replace GCSEs with the English Baccalaureate Certificate (EBC), with qualifications being offered in the core academic subjects of English, maths, science, foreign languages, history and geography.

The consultation has the same deadline as the Government’s EBC consultation document, December 10, and the plan is to collate the responses and present them to the Department For Education.

Mr Tomsett said: “We hope that we will be able to offer the DfE the considered views of all those people who have expertise in developing curriculum and assessment in schools and we are meeting the Shadow Education Minister, Stephen Twigg, a week on Monday to discuss our plans.

“We need everyone who downloads our consultation document to pass it on to as many other people as possible. We want to present to the DfE the very best ideas for establishing a truly world class education system characterised by the highest standards for all children.”

The “roundtable” believes the curriculum and assessment should be taken out of political control and given to an independent agency with a 20-year licence and stopping the current system of capping the number of students who can achieve a certain grade in exams.

Download the Head Teachers’ Roundtable consultation document