OUR front page story today highlights issues that have been featured before and we make no apology for that.

They are very important issues being raised by a city family who feel they are locked into an apparently unresponsive and unsympathetic system.

On the surface, the facts are clear. The eldest son of Mark and Lin Suffolk was removed from Elgar High School after bullying complaints.

Following an extensive appeal procedure, this boy is now a pupil at a different high school - Nunnery Wood - and much happier there by all accounts.

The younger son is now reaching high school age and is scheduled to attend Elgar. The parents, naturally enough considering their experience with their elder son, would prefer the brothers to be together at Nunnery Wood.

However, Nunnery Wood is already over-subscribed and the chance of a place is slim. The family are battling with the county's system to get, what would be to them, a positive response to their dilemma.

The problem, in this paper's opinion, is that the national parental choice policy is now running out of control, undermining the natural scheme of things and bringing in an "every-man-for-himself" attitude.

It is exacerbating a problem that has always been there, by putting schools in a much more competitive and unhealthy situation.

Elgar High is making massive strides in its "battle against the past" and is now rated highly by many - educationalists and pupils' parents alike.

We applaud them for this, but the issues raised by this story go far deeper. It is the system that is at fault and whatever can be done at a county level to alleviate or ameliorate this will be welcomed by many.

Now is the time for the up-and-coming educationalists - bearing in mind next month's county elections - to start some lateral thinking on this issue.

It is not going to go away.