A former Brighton head teacher has added her voice to those hoping to give children from Whitehawk a better schooling.
Jill Clough “applauded” Curtis James and the Class Divide campaign group for their work to tackle the injustices affecting children from the area.
Dr Clough gave up her job running an exclusive independent school to take on the East Brighton College of Media Arts – known as CoMart – starting in January 2001.
Having lifted the school out of “special measures” within a year, she left in March 2003.
The school had been placed in special measures by the official education watchdog Ofsted after an inspection before her appointment found the school to be inadequate.
Just over two years after she left, in summer 2005, Brighton and Hove City Council closed CoMart, in Wilson Avenue.
It was originally named Stanley Deason High School when it opened in 1972 – after a former mayor of Brighton and long-serving councillor – before being rebranded Marina High from 1997-99, the CoMart.
It saddled with debts as an exodus of pupils coupled with an expensive “PFI” or private finance initiative deal saddled the school with a deficit and the need for radical job cuts.
Dr Clough, now an author in Cumbria, said: “I left my post as the principal of East Brighton College of Media Arts when I realised the entrenched snobbery in the city would never acknowledge that all children are potentially marvellous.
“It’s adults who shape them, ignore them, make excuses or have faith in them. I am very sad to see that nothing seems to have changed.
“I had been successful in two previous schools (I still have letters from parents, students and staff) but within six months of arriving I was being treated by my fellow heads in Brighton as if I were inadequate, because only ‘inadequate’ people would associate themselves with the school.
“I discovered from CoMart students that this was an all too familiar experience for them. Still, staff and I together got the school out of special measures in a year.
“Nobody was interested. At that time, my union, the Association of School and College Leaders, was utterly supportive of me. I wonder what they are thinking now.
“I applaud Curtis James for all the work he has done over the past years, through Class Divide, to draw attention to the injustice still rampant in Brighton.”
