I write in response to the article entitled "Head is sorry for admissions letter" (December 2), which referred to a letter sent by Trevor Allen, head teacher of Dorothy Stringer, writing to parents to clarify the content of a previous letter.

I have two daughters at Dorothy Stringer and thought your headline was truly misleading.

Mr Allen apologised for omitting to list all the primary schools linked to Stringer in his first letter but at no point did he withdraw any of the comments in his first letter.

In fact, in the second letter, he stated: "It should be possible to find a better way forward than is presently being proposed. In order to do this, however, it is important full and accurate information is made available and that modelling exercises are conducted and the results published."

I am certain Brighton and Hove City Council think head teachers should remain neutral and that these bureaucrats think they know more about education than teachers.

Parents beg to differ. We entrust our children to teachers and trust their expertise and judgment.

I know what a good job the teachers and head teacher at Stringer are doing and so do the other parents who are trying to get places at the over-subscribed school.

I have requested the first-choice figures for secondary schools for September 2006 admission three times but apparently am not allowed to see them. Presumably, Stringer is even more oversubscribed than in previous years.

However, parents are much less sure about the job done by these anonymous council spokespersons, who treat teachers with contempt.

Why can't a head teacher express a view about changes which will radically change the make-up of his or her school? Which rule states this?

I would relish an open and honest debate on how the council oversees education but there isn't much chance, considering the attitude of its family and children's services committee.

Maybe foundation schools are the way forward. At least then we could be rid of anonymous council spokespersons in their ivory towers.

-Siobhan McAlinden, Brighton