PARENTS called today for the City of York Council to abandon its controversial review of school admissions, claiming it could result in falling classroom standards.

And on the day a leading Government expert comes to York to lecture on education, campaigners want parents and councillors to work together to improve schooling in the city.

Professor Michael Barber, head of the Government's standards and effectiveness unit, will be discussing how to improve schooling when he gives a lecture at the National Railway Museum tonight.

Meanwhile, as revealed in the Evening Press, hundreds of villagers on the outskirts of York are uniting to fight proposals which could change the way secondary places in the city are allocated.

Last night around 100 parents gathered at Dunnington School and a letter campaign opposing any change was launched.

The council claims the review is needed because there are currently two systems - inherited from North Yorkshire County Council - for allocating secondary places; one for pupils living within the old York City boundary and the other for those living in the outer parts of the authority.

A massive consultation has now been launched giving parents four options to consider:

* To leave things as they are* To let parents apply to any secondary school* To divide the council's area into three zones, linking primary schools to two or more secondary schools* To link primary schools to specific secondary schools.

The council claims the changes will make the admissions system clearer and more consistent.

However, parents in Dunnington and Elvington claim under options three and four their children, who usually go on to attend Fulford School, will be sent to "weaker schools".

Dunnington spokesman Peter Rees Jones said under the zoning option, children in the north of the city would be as much as 24 per cent more likely to achieve five or more passes at GCSE, grades A* to C, than children in the other zones.

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