§ SIR CHARLES DILKETo ask the Secretary to the Board of Education whether his attention has been directed 804 to the case of some children who, having been attending a Church school and having been taken away from that school, their parents being dissatisfied with it, were refused admission to the Cirencester board schools; and, seeing that after the refusal of the School Board to admit the children the parents were fined for neglecting to send their children to school, can he state the grounds on which admission was refused by the School Board, and whether in such cases regard can be had to the wishes of the parents in respect of the training of their children.
(Answered, by Sir William Anson.) Three children, named Godsell, were removed by their parents from the Cirencester, Watermoor Trinity National School, and were refused admission to the Cirencester, Lewis Lane, Board School, in or about May last. An arrangement existed between the School Board and the managers of voluntary schools in the town forbidding capricious migration of children from school to school. Such arrangements are not uncommon, and they are recognised by the Board of Education as an aid to continuity of teaching. Complaints arising under Article 78 of the Code are dealt with by the Board of Education on their merits. In the present case the parents complained of "unkindness" to the children at the Watermoor School, but sent no reply to a request of the Board of Education that they would specify some instances of unkindness. The Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the School Board interviewed both parents and children, and were satisfied that the complaint was groundless. The Board of Education thereupon supported the School Board in their exclusion of the children as "reasonable" (Article 78).