AGAINST: Clifford Reeves, 54, artist, from Soden Road, Upper Heyford. He is a father of five, three at Marlborough School, one at Fritwell Primary School and one at Chesterton Primary School...

The Rt Hon Mr Gove has instigated a policy which states that all 16 to 19-year-olds must either be in work based-training, college or attending a school.

This increases the recognised educational leaving age to 18, unless you are in work-based training other than college for which you would normally be paid.

I think the whole thing is intrinsically wrong and the Government is doing it for the wrong reason.

They are doing it to save money and not for the benefit of education.

They are raising the school leaving age because they don’t want kids on the dole.

This also raises an anomaly because the law requiring the local authority to provide free transport has not been changed and they are still only legally bound to supply transport up to the age of 16.

I have been in contact with Neil Darlington (cabinet member for schools improvement) after receiving a letter regarding the increases in charges for school transport from September 2013.

He has stated that there is no legal requirement for the council to provide free school transport for 16 to 19-year-olds and that this has been confirmed by their solicitors.

I have already spoken to different schools regarding how this will impact upon bursaries for low income family students.

Their responses have been negative in the fact that any bursaries available will be reduced as no further money is available at this time to cover the extra numbers attending.

This will impact upon the poorest of society and further reduce their standard of living.

Also if people do go to school and don’t want to be there they will be disruptive to other children and schools can’t cope with this.

They also don’t have a curriculum for suiting all children.

Not everyone is academically astute and they are going to be disruptive if they don’t get on.

I have a child who is 17 and about to start his A-levels and he finds disruption even from people who want to be there.

There’s no point putting someone into a physics class if they want to do woodwork. There should be more vocational type work.

FOR: Sue Croft, headmistress at Oxford Spires Academy School...

I certainly think it’s healthy for children to be in some form of education until they are 18.

In life one never stops learning and until you are 18 it is healthy to understand the role played by good quality education and I think it can help every individual in the country.

It’s very important staying on at school.

It’s a good option for many students and for all 16 and 18 year olds there’s something relevant to them which will continue with their education and training.

Certainly many students have benefited hugely and progressed even beyond their own expectations by staying on at school past 16.

Students can play a leadership role when they are in sixth form and help to mentor the next leaders coming into the sixth form.

There are captain roles in the school and initially those were just in sports, drama and music.

But now we have captains in all subjects and they can nurture young students and help them to develop their strengths. They take their leadership roles very seriously.

The younger students look up to the sixth form in terms of aspirations.

It is important to have both vocational and academic subjects as long as there is something for everyone’s strengths.

It sets them up on the right path and helps them with future success.

“I also think it can help them decide what they want to do.

They also learn skills for later in life and it allows them to reflect and put those skills into place. They learn adult skills like resilience, self-reflection, social and communication skills and this stands them in good stead.

Between the age of 16 and 18, students develop and grow into young adults and take on board those leadership skills I mentioned before.

There are lots of opportunities available to them. For instance, two girls in year 11 have just finished a Global Young Leaders Conference in Massachusetts, which took place across 34 countries.

They said it was fantastic and had a brilliant time. We try to find courses and opportunities that help individuals to grow.