Parents living near two popular secondary schools fear that their children could have to travel miles on leaving primary school if proposed catchment area changes are approved.
Brighton and Hove City Council is currently holding an “engagement exercise”, asking parents for their views on proposed changes to admissions and catchment areas for secondary schools.
The proposals outline three options aimed in part at addressing falling pupils numbers from September next year.
People living in Friar Road, Friar Crescent, Friar Walk and Friar Close, Brighton, are concerned that all the proposed changes remove Dorothy Stringer from all three of their proposed secondary school catchments.
Many of them live less than 200 yards from Stringer and two of the proposed catchments – options A and C – also remove them from the catchment for neighbouring Varndean.
Option B proposes a catchment that would include Varndean, Patcham High and the Brighton Aldridge Community Academy (BACA) which is almost three miles away.
Friar Crescent resident Paul Herbertson said that the proposals could result in his five-year-old son going to secondary school far away from his friends who live in neighbouring streets.
Mr Herbertson said: “The ‘consultation’ process and period does not instil faith that the council wants to listen to the communities this so greatly affects.
“Three weeks is no time at all for a consultation of this magnitude. Information regarding the proposals has been poorly presented with many reporting accessibility issues.
“In-person meetings were initially set at only one and at a key time when parents would need to be getting children to bed. It has been poorly advertised, with many parents still having no idea that it is happening.”
After meeting neighbours, Mr Herbertson wrote to the leader and deputy leader of the council and members of the council’s People Overview and Scrutiny Committee which is due to discuss the proposals today (Wednesday 9 October).
He wrote: “I appreciate the need for ensuring all children in the Brighton and Hove area should have access to a good school. Disregarding the geographic reality seems extraordinarily short-sighted.
“It will divide communities, something so important to and characteristic of Brighton and Hove, increase traffic and reduce the number of children walking or cycling to school and there is little/no evidence that this approach will achieve the aims.
“Indeed, the council refers to the Sutton Trust report which recommends the admissions policies are changed not boundaries.”
After the council announced public meetings and its engagement process, neighbours created a paper petition and have applied for an electronic version on the council’s website.
Falling pupil numbers have already led to councillors voting to close two primary schools – and from September next year fewer children are expected to go to local secondary schools.
Funding is based mainly on pupil numbers and a key aim of the review is to cut 345 year 7 classroom places – from 2,560 to 2,215 – by September 2030.
The initial proposals would involve cutting 90 places a year from the published admission number (PAN) at both Blatchington Mill and Longhill, 60 places at both Dorothy Stringer and Varndean and 45 places at Patcham High.
No change is proposed at four schools which are either academies, free schools or faith schools because they set their own admission numbers.
The next public meeting about the proposals is planned for Thursday (10 October) at Hove Town Hall at 6pm.
Two online meetings are also scheduled for parents and carers at 6.30pm on Wednesday 16 October and 11.30am on Monday 21 October.
Once the initial engagement, is complete a report is due to go to the cabinet before a formal six-week consultation on the Your Voice section of the council’s website.
When the current engagement started, Councillor Jacob Taylor, the deputy leader of the council, said: “We want to build an education system in the city that is fair and inclusive where all pupils can access a great education.
“To do this, we need to address educational inequality in the city, as well as the issue of falling pupil numbers in our secondary schools.
“We’re launching this engagement to identify solutions and ensure the opportunities and outcomes of our children and young people are not dictated by their background.
“We’ve developed three different models that could tackle these issues and ensure all secondary schools in the city are able to thrive. We are keen to hear from parents, carers and the wider community about these options.
“The rules on school admissions mean that we cannot propose a change across all schools in the city but we hope to work with academy and church schools to do what is right for Brighton and Hove’s children and young people.”
The People Overview and Scrutiny Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 4pm today (Wednesday 9 October) to discuss the proposals. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.
It appears that it is the children who are being asked to address “education equality,” rather than the council.
There is never going to be a perfect solution to this because edge cases are always going to be aggrieved. It is the same with any kind of means testing that doesn’t taper.
Not that I have a solution here…sounds like if all the school provide an equally good service, it wouldn’t matter where the boundary lines were?