The last thing any council wants to do is propose the closure of a school in their area. We have heard from hundreds of parents, staff and pupils about their fears over school closure and the love and affection they hold for St Peter’s and St Bartholemew’s.
However, we must be honest with the city – Brighton and Hove has such a severe problem with pupil numbers and school funding that we have no choice but to take action that will help ensure schools are properly funded and children get the education they deserve.
No responsible council in the country would let such a situation continue. Other than perhaps the last Green administration in this city, who were clinically incapable of taking responsibility for practically anything.
I want to explain to parents, staff and the wider community why the city must make these changes. Although, actually, it is not Labour councillors demanding this – it is the people who best understand education in the city: our head teachers.
They sent a letter to the council about school budgets in June last year. It said: “We know that the current situation (school funding) has been compounded by the lack of pupils within the city.
“Pupil numbers is an issue that has been discussed for many years. The local authority need to show some ‘leadership qualities’ and tackle this issue.
“We as head teachers all know that we have many school places in the city that are surplus to current requirements and, due to chronic and continuous underfunding, some good schools are not currently financially viable. When will this issue be properly addressed?”
They also explained what the lack of action has meant for school budgets. The lost funding meant that their school budgets could only be managed by “stripping out swathes of support staff” and that doing so “is having a direct impact on what we are offering our children”.
They said: “Standards will decline but, more importantly, as we lose our staff who deal with the pastoral support for our most vulnerable children, we will have an increase in mental health issues.
“Ideally, all schools should be run safely, effectively and efficiently. The severe cuts we are making jeopardise the safety, effectiveness and efficiency of our schools.“
This is because schools are funded on a per-pupil basis. If they have far fewer pupils than their capacity, they lose significant amounts of funding from central government.
In Brighton and Hove we currently have 2,610 places available in our reception classes each year. In the coming years the number of children wanting a place will fall to 1,900 – and by 2027 is forecast to be less than 1,800.
Our schools will be more than a quarter empty. On a city-wide basis, that lack of pupils means our schools are missing out on roughly £2 million of funding per year group – and nearly £14 million across the whole primary system.
As head teachers explained, this means they cannot fund as much support for those with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and those from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The decisions are difficult and painful but a Labour council has to do what is right to ensure schools can provide support to those children who most need it.
That is why we are proceeding with proposals to close St Peter’s and St Bartholomew’s and to reduce the intake of a further six schools.
What came out very strongly in the consultation process was concern about whether pupils will receive the same support that they do at their current school and that the transition process would be disruptive.
That is why the council has allocated more staff hours to manage the transition and why councillors have demanded that all impacted families get the support they need to move to a new school where they will thrive.
The council has made these decisions with a very, very heavy heart. But the primary school system we create as a result will be better-funded and better able to provide a full and supportive education to all pupils in the city.
Councillor Jacob Taylor is the co-chair of Brighton and Hove City Council’s Children, Families and Schools Committee.
You should of reduced pans a long time ago and then the proposal to close schools wouldn’t be happening but you have left it until now and now your leaving children in crisis with no suitable school place that will accommodate the children’s needs you say children’s education is important maybe you start showing it then we as parents of st Peter’s are not giving up
How about Jacob Taylor and Richard barker get off their arses and actually read the 22 page list of concerns we sent them regarding our school closure.
Passing the buck to headteachers now and positioning yourself as someone with leadership qualities? Could this sound anymore puke inducing? Let’s be straight and cut the political talk. Labour made very clear pledges – you have broken them 6 months in. You pretend to have a consultation then email parents telling them it’s closing when it’s supposed to be a “genuine” consultation. You completely ignore what the community say despite a high volume disagreeing with you. We raised the issues that the nursery school has been excluded- and you have still done that. The last consultation I read out all the nearby nurseries and how they don’t meet continuity of care which YOU are supposed to adhere to. I raised in depth the concerns that all of them either don’t accommodate working hours OR are stretched funding so families will either have to cut their working hours or give up work completely as it will be unviable. Then you have the audacity to put them in as suggestions for us to move to. Did you not listen to anything we told you??? And you are not supposed to increase car usage, negative environmental impact, put pressure on logistics and finances as per the DfE policy on CLOSING SCHOOLS!!! By shoving us 2 miles away and suggesting private nurseries you are DOING THAT!!! Learn to do your job better. Stop investing in vanity projects if it’s a budget crisis. You’re certainly not holding back when it comes to those. It’s abhorrent and utterly disgusting. Expect the community to be outraged – and expect to lose your seats when the time comes.
This is not acceptable!! If St Peter’s was to close down my daughter will not “THRIVE” it’s taken her 3 years to build up relationships she has with teachers @SaveStpeters1. This has been done with time and patience with her class teacher taking time out of her own lunch to build a relationship with her. How is this possible in a class of 30+ children? Many children will not thrive away from their safe adults they’ve taken so long to build rapport with! Infact it will be incredibly damaging. My daughter will not thrive she will revert back to how she was In Reception, anxious Hope, to scared to leave home Hope, not sleeping and eating Hope, making herself physically sick Hope. That is not ok nor is it offering continuency of care!!! You are dismissing all of our concerns as families who have children with #SEND who thrive at St Peter’s and your seats will be on the line due to this. Where is this support then? I’m yet to recieve any support from @WSCCNews and local councillors and MP. You haven’t even listed my three closest schools with availability for my children in lancing. Because there isn’t space or they can’t cater for my autistic child’s needs due to her EP plan St Peter use not being viable over in West Sussex. . #shameonyou.
The council just needs to get on with it and actually the only question is have they closed enough schools rather than this timid approach which means many more schools will now be severely underfunded. Schools much closer to capacity will have far more funding to help kids with SEND needs rather than the situation when the standard in many schools will just continue to decline as they are starved of funding and thus sacrificing the education and prospects of many kids in the city as they will only be one form entry. The good thing about this policy too is it also means the very best teachers in the city can be retained and all kids will get access to them. In an ideal world there would be a magic money tree and these decisions wouldn’t need to be made. Now the council needs to just focus on what the best policy for the majority of kids in the city and reducing school places to match the available pupil numbers is it.
It would be interesting to know where these Labout councillors send their offspring? Maybe rather more effort if their own were at St Peters.
When cllr Taylor claims that the last Green administration were were “clinically incapable of taking responsibility for practically anything” he may be forgetting that Labour held the last administration following the election, but walked away from leadership following their own internal disagreements.
Or he may just be a hypocrite.
The Greens – far from avoiding responsibility – stepped up with zero notice to lead the city through the pandemic. Whatever you feel about their leadership, it is without doubt that Labour let the city down and shirked its responsibility on a major scale.