But for the beady-eyed parent, there is still the opportunity to glean vital knowledge about a school – such as what it puts on its walls. It felt like a cattle market, she said.The professionally run open day ensures that visitors see a school only in its Sunday best. Rosie Winters was nonplussed by an Oxford independent school’s recent open day, attended by so many prospective parents that the head gave his speech “every hour, on the hour”. They may be able to talk to pupils, and, where possible, note how they relate to their teachers.Most importantly, they can begin to form an impression of the atmosphere and texture of school life. As June Robbins, a north London parent, says: “In the end, your reading of a school is almost instinctive.” Sometimes, however, the school’s PR can be off-putting. Parents can tour the classrooms and perhaps sit in on lessons. They can assess displays of work, and may be able to watch musical or theatrical performances, or sporting events.

For parents, they provide an excellent starting point in the hunt for the right school. Many of them, according to Dick Davison at the Independent Schools Information Service, will be comparing independent schools with what the state sector has to offer for free, and this has increased the pressure on independent schools to create a favourable impression at their open days.Open days are set-piece occasions, when schools show off their wares. But parents, too, have grown more knowledgeable about schools, and more sophisticated in their appraisals.
Some families may sample five or six different open days before narrowing down their options. Independent schools, over the last 10 years, have become far more professional in their dealings with prospective parents, and for many of them, the open day is now the pi? de r?stance in an impressive marketing strategy. Charles Clarke, the Education Secretary, has promised to plough £800m into school budgets over the next two years.. “We pay our teachers to teach, not to do administration,” he said. “There are some people who would rather see the Government fail for reasons I don’t understand.”David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: “There are heads who are going to find it difficult to implement the agreement.” He estimated that the number of schools failing to implement the contract was running “into hundreds”.The Department for Education and Skills said it “recognised” that some schools will be facing funding difficulties this year”.

He warned that teachers’ union leaders and council officials would be visiting schools to persuade them to stick to the agreement. The new teachers’ contract – the Government’s attempt to to free staff from administrative burdens – has failed in many schools, headteachers say. Schools in financial difficulty, particularly those with a history of poor funding, are struggling to implement the agreement These are contractual changes and the school has no option. “If it doesn’t do the trick, then we’re in deep trouble,” he warned.According to John Dunford, general secretary of the Secondary Heads Association: “It’s the worst combination of circumstances – to introduce a new measure which requires considerable funding at the same time as the biggest funding crisis for many years. There will be a number of schools where the staff will be prepared to work on as they have been doing for umpteen years – provided they are assured that as soon as the schools have the money, the agreement will be implemented.” Mr Hart said that hundreds of schools are affected, and that the situation will only be eased if the Government’s financial-rescue package, promised later this year, is big enough to make a difference. A recent survey by The Independent has suggested that the scale of the financial shortfall in the education system means that more than 1,000 teaching posts have disappeared over the past few months.”There’s no doubt about it, there is a significant number of heads who are going to find it very difficult, if not impossible, to implement the agreement from day one,” said David Hart, general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers.”It will take them some time to implement the central changes as they simply haven’t got the staff on the ground. Head-teacher associations are warning that hundreds of schools are affected around the country.

“My perception is that the majority of schools are finding it difficult. We’re hoping that David Miliband comes up with a rescue package for Leicestershire in April.”The problem is not confined to the one county, nor to primary schools. But now he is £57,000 over budget and the county council has objected. “It’s likely that the number of support staff the school employs will have to be reduced, and that may well have an effect on our ability to implement the agreement,” he said.”I’d be verysurprised if, in Leicestershire, many schools could afford to implement it correctly,” said Mr Davis, who is also chair of the National Primary Headteachers Association. At Queniborough Primary School near Leicester, Chris Davis took the radical step of starting the agreement a year early, a move the staff appreciated. One of them may soon have to stop because of budget problems. This, certainly, is what has happened in Scotland, which introduced a maximum 35-hour week two years ago.A minority of Leicestershire primary schools are known to be sticking to the English deal in full.