A primary school will reduce its intake to one class this year after fewer than 30 families applied for a place.
Carden Primary School, in Carden Avenue, Brighton, was earmarked to reduce its intake to one class, or 30 pupils in reception from September this year, to try to reduce the number of vacant places in schools across Brighton and Hove.
But after a vocal campaign from parents at Carden and six other schools, Brighton and Hove City Council abandoned its plan.
Instead, the council is looking to find ways to work with schools to deal with the projected fall in the number of children starting in reception.
Officials have forecast that parents will apply for just 1,930 reception year places in September 2025.
For September 2023, 2,113 youngsters were allocated places in reception classes, leaving 557 out of 2,670 places empty.
After just 27 youngsters secured places to start in reception at Carden, which serves the community in Hollingbury, the council, with support from the school governors, applied to the Schools Adjudicator to reduce the published admissions number (PAN) for September to 30.
Next year’s the admissions number remains 60 pupils. Reducing this year’s intake means that the school can limit late applications to prevent its number rising above 30, which would affect the school’s budget.
Conservative councillor Alistair McNair, who represents Patcham and Hollingbury, also chairs the governing body at Carden.
He said that the governors and leadership team were disappointed in the low numbers this year as there were usually 45 applications for a place.
Councillor McNair said: “We agreed to a reduction for two reasons. One, it would be temporary, for 2023-24 only. And two, it would save the school a significant cost – and we would not have to contemplate any reduction in staffing.
“If Carden had received 31 pupil applications before we had submitted our request to reduce our PAN, we would legally have had to open two classes. And this would have been very challenging financially.
“Governors felt it would have too much of a negative effect financially on the school to justify.
“Carden has been very successfully managed financially and, although finances are a struggle, the school is in a good position. Governors did not wish to risk this.”
Abby Kinslow was one of the parents campaigning to keep two “forms of entry” at the school through the Keep Carden Thriving campaign.
She said that the campaign had called for “joined-up strategic thinking” to tackle the falling pupil numbers.
In Patcham and Hollingbury, she said that the ideal situation would be to have two classes in Patcham Infants and Carden Primary rather than the three smaller classes at Patcham Infants and one “very full” class at Carden.
Ms Kinslow said: “Parental choice is given as the reason that strategic decisions are not being made, but failing to balance the PAN fairly across schools only intensifies this problem.
“Smaller schools receive less funding and therefore become less desirable. Competition of this nature is deeply flawed and weighted against the disadvantaged.
“Local and national government are failing too many children in not working for a system where everyone has equal access to a good school close to home and fluctuations in (school) population can be shared by all the schools in the area rather than the little guy taking the fall every time.”
Labour councillor Lucy Helliwell, joint chair of the council’s Children, Families and Schools Committee, said: “We applied for a one-year variation in the PAN at Carden Primary with the support of the school’s governing body.
“They were clear that the agreement was a pragmatic response to the number of pupils offered places for September 2023.
“They have made it clear that this approach does not indicate a willingness to have a reduction in PAN in future years.
“Our understanding is that all the requests for variations made for September 2023 have been approved.
“This will support our efforts to work with schools to address the impact of falling pupil numbers.”
I think I’ve already said this before, but reduced application really does stem from a lack of affordable social housing. I’m hoping we can come up with some solutions to this challenge. It will not change overnight, of course, but some mitigation into the situation would indeed be very welcome by all, I would wager!
I think this is so sad, that this is happening, I grew up in Birchgrove crescent, & I went to the nursery school, infants & juniors, but that was back in the early 60s it was a good school.