The drop in the number of children starting school this month is much greater than the national average, councillors were told yesterday (Monday 11 September).
Birthrates have fallen nationally, with a nationwide drop of 6 per cent over the past decade, according to census data.
But in Brighton and Hove, the number of four-year-olds starting school had fallen by 22 per cent.
As a result, hundreds of reception class places were empty across Brighton and Hove at the start of the new school year.
Green councillor Sue Shanks asked for the figures for filled places rather than unfilled places for this year’s September intake at a Brighton and Hove City Council committee meeting today (Monday 11 September).
At the council’s Children, Families and Learning Committee meeting she asked what steps the council was taking to “ensure efficiency across primary schools” before next September for the 2024-25 school year.
In recent years, the council has cut admissions at larger schools across Brighton and Hove as pupil numbers keep falling.
Labour councillor Lucy Helliwell, who co-chairs the Children, Families and Learning Committee, said that there were 369 unfilled places in reception classes across Brighton and Hove this September, equating to 14 per cent of the total available places.
But she could not say how many places had been filled this year until the school census had taken place in October, she said.
The results should be made available by January when the committee is due to discuss admission arrangements for September 2025.
A proposal is expected to be presented to the committee in November and to be the subject of a consultation.
Councillor Helliwell said: “We will continue to liaise with schools on the number of primary places available next September to avoid excessive amounts of unfilled places.
“For example, a variation to a school’s published admission number might be made so they take in a reduced maximum number of children.”
Councillor Shanks asked if schools could close.
Councillor Helliwell did not say yes or no but said that she and her co-chair, Councillor Jacob Taylor, were talking with governors and head teachers about ways to tackle surplus spaces.
This is a symptom of housing affordability and availability in the city. I am concerned about this going into a death spiral; schools lose out on funding due to the lack of numbers, jobs are cut, school places shrink, school becomes unviable, and then the school shuts down.
I believe AirBnB has a major influence on this; as of yesterday’s scraped data, there are 5,400 STR properties active in the city, with 40% of them being only available for three months or less, meaning the city loses 3,240 years of living due to empty properties, every year, at least. Then if you want to contextualise that in terms of people, based on the average of 2.36 per household, that’s just shy of 153 working lifetimes (16-66 years old).
No wonder there is a housing crisis. The numbers are shocking.
This is just nonsense. Families want cheap housing which you find in places like Hanover etc. This is now filled with students, HMOs and commuters with nominal AirBnBs and prices have risen. The population has also risen which has put more demand on housing. The numbers of AirBnBs is also nonsense as most properties have up to 4 listings and many leave the market after a few months and go into 6 month winter lets.
Move a few miles away to Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath and Worthing and housing is much cheaper and the schools of a much higher standard. Brighton school places also expanded far more a few years ago as Brighton was a desirable place for EU migrants to settle. If we have fewer students and fewer schools so what. Hopefully, this will mean the standard of schools raise as the best teachers are retained and we just go back to the number of school places we used to have.
I’ve explained why your opinion is not correct already I’m afraid the first time you posted this, and I’ve also explained how figures cater for the seasonality aspect, Sarah. I’ve also already replied why reducing child placements is actually a detriment to the quality of a school.
The schools in the areas you mention are certainly not of a higher standard.
Stop letting local houses to students. There are enough student flats in the town now. If there are hundreds of students in houses. Families have nowhere to live. So there will be hardly any children in the area to go to school.
Also by renting local houses to students, it puts the cost of housing up. So youngsters have to move away to afford rent or a mortgage.
Simple figures show that there are not enough student flats in Brighton to cater for the universities, not even close. If you think students are the problem, then you’d be supportive of additional student housing, because that’s the fix to reduce spillage into the private rental market – even though, generally speaking, student lets are purpose-built, and aren’t used for family homes, so have no impact on this particular issue.
Brexit. The gift that keeps on giving. Shortage of nurses and hospitality workers with young families. Numbers of primary school kids shot up with the advent of Polish workers who have now returned home to a more welcoming climate
It’s a lack of social housing that’s the main issue here. Nothing else comes close.
Of course the number of children is going to drop and will keep dropping. Brighton does nothing to encourage families to live here. Ridiculous rent/house prices, a chronic lack of shops and where any housing is built it is invariably for students or ‘young professionals’
Student housing would have never been for anything else, so it’s not a good argument on that side. If you’re referring to the development in the middle of Brighton…personally I don’t think that HMO in sheep’s clothing is going to get past planning permission – it can’t deliver on its promise of affordable housing.
A chronic lack of shops? I can assure you there are plenty in town.
To be fair, his road is pretty…bare.
He’s right, there are not the resources. Shelves are empty in Aldi London road and that monstrosity of alleged affordable housing at the end of Preston Park will only exacerbate when the DFLs occupy them. Churchill square is a dystopian nightmare with to let signs everywhere. Plenty of litter, graffiti (not the artistic kind).
Schools need pupils to get funding which is based on Published Admissions Number (PAN). Fewer pupils means less funding for the school. No funding for one to one SEN children. 53 percent of Brighton and Hove schools already published a budget deficit due to reduced PAN. It’s a big problem for all schools in the city.
I grew up here in the 80s/90s/00s. About 5% of my school friends were and always will be council tenants and so will stay in Brighton and Hove. 95% of my school friends who were not and are not council tenants have moved to Lancing, Worthing, Burgess Hill, and increasingly moving further afield – Eastbourne,Seaford, Newhaven as they can actually afford to nicely house their families there. No kids will live in Brighton and Hove any more except those of the very very wealthy (who will probably attend private school) and council tenants. Interesting times afoot. Affordable housing is needed.
Affordable housing is definitely needed.
Student housing in Brighton is only built and let to first year students. All subsequent years are expected to find accommodation in the private rented sector. Could this be why BHCC charge Brighton and Hove residents double the average council tax of London? After all, students do not pay council tax.
Incorrect. It is majority first-year students. Who then choose to go into the private rental sector, usually because they’ve found a group of people they get on within the first year. However, any year can book into student accommodation.
Labour have always been determined to turn Brighton into a town you drive through, not live in.
This is a simple result of years of their policy.
That’s objectively not true though, is it Delenda? Most policies that have been enacted that do as you describe have been Green-led. Please try to be accurate. I have noticed you make a lot of disingenuous comments.
Talk about disingenuous…
Can you name one example of the Greens prioritising private motor traffic over pedestrians, cyclists or public transport?
That dogma belongs to Labour and their Tory doppelgangers.
Curious what else you think I’ve said has been disingenuous? I mostly challenge Challis’s fantasies and fabrications.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/281416/birth-rate-in-the-united-kingdom-uk/
The birthrate has been declining for years and the rate of families moving to Brighton has probably declined too.