School leaders in Oxfordshire have called on the Government to abandon its controversial education White Paper -- warning it could create admissions chaos.

Proposals for schools to become self-governing trusts, backed by a business, charity, faith group or parent organisations, with control over their own admissions, have been attacked by heads and governors.

The Oxfordshire Governors' Association (OGA), along with four out of five Oxford headteachers, are among those who fear the proposals could damage collaboration between schools in the county, where currently more than 97 per cent of pupils get into their first choice of secondary school.

Heads at The Cherwell School, Oxford Community School, Peers Technology College and Cheney School all oppose the reforms. Cheney head Alan Lane said: "If schools were to indulge in a free-for-all with admissions, there would be a serious risk that people in fringe areas of the city would find it very difficult to get admission in secondary schools.

"Schools have been through massive structural changes and are still working through the present ones. We need further structural change about as much as a hole in the head. Apart from the points about behaviour support and exclusions, there was nothing in the White Paper which would actually result in improvements in teaching and learning."

Oxford Community School head Steve Lunt added: "We don't want to see our good relationship with each other and the LEA damaged by allowing schools to control their own admissions."

David Wilson, chairman of the Oxfordshire Secondary Headteachers Association and Faringdon Community College head, said: "If schools are setting their own admissions policies, then for every winner there will be more than one loser." Nicholas Young, headteacher of King Alfred's Community and Sports College, Wantage, welcomed proposals to tackle behaviour problems, but added: "We are all very worried about the problem areas of the White Paper concerning admissions and trust schools."

Clive Hallett, Oxfordshire branch secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, warned: "Instead of trying to offer all pupils a fair playing field, it's going to be tilted in favour of those whose parents know how to get around the admissions policy."

But Susan Tranter, head at Fitzharrys School, Abingdon, is backing the White Paper and revealed she would consider trust school status. She said: "The White Paper is about local solutions for local problems. "I wouldn't say it was entirely problem-free, but it represents a really good opportunity for schools to work collaboratively to tackle the problems that we all face.

"We would look at becoming a trust school."

Pippa Sandford, chairman of governors at Windale Primary School, Blackbird Leys, Oxford, warned that disadvantaged families would lose out most.

She said: "There's a great fear that if schools become more competitive then the good schools will get better and the weak schools will get weaker."

The OGA is sending a report criticising the White Paper to the Government's Department for Education and Skills (DfES).

Its secretary Judith Bennett said: "We have grave misgivings about most of the proposals. To have all schools being trust, foundation or academies moves schools away from local accountability. That's dangerous"

OGA chairman Carole Thomson added: "We value the relationship we have with the local authority, and the Government seems bent on destroying it." While Conservative leader and Witney MP David Cameron has embraced the reforms, Labour MP Andrew Smith said he was unhappy with some of the proposals. He said: "The Government has got some fresh thinking to do before it brings forward legislation. I want to see the good bits of the White Paper go through but some of these proposals need to be changed."

A DfES spokesman insisted there would be no return to selection by ability, adding: "Trust schools are about bringing expertise and drive but they are also about allowing a school to develop a distinctive ethos.