‘You Take What you are Given’: The Limits to Parental Choice in Education in East London

The paper discusses parental choice of secondary schooling, drawing on a recent study of east London. It is argued that the New Labour agenda of promoting choice of secondary school can, in practice, constrain choice as parents ‘play safe’. The paper reviews the working of educational choice across seven boroughs in east London, and then focuses on how it is working in one outer London borough. It is argued that when education and housing markets are considered together it is possible to identify several of what Ball et al have termed ‘circuits of schooling’. The paper concludes by suggesting that the ‘choice agenda’ may be creating a perception of failure and a sense of resentment amongst parents who do not succeed in getting their children into all but the most popular schools.