Merger of two Brighton schools edges ahead

The proposed merger of two Brighton schools is moving ahead after a decision by councillors at Hove Town Hall yesterday (Monday 11 September).

They backed publishing public notices of the proposed merger of Hertford Infant School and Hertford Junior School on to one site in Hollingdean from September next year.

Once the final comments from the public have been received, councillors are expected to approve in November the merger that would in effect create a new primary school.

Members of Brighton and Hove City Council’s Children, Families and Schools Committee heard about the outcome of a recent consultation.

Eleven of the 47 responses to the consultation – carried out in June and July – came from parents or carers and 20 from local residents.

Parents and carers backed the plan for a primary school – on the Lynchet Close site – in line with the head teacher and governors. But most of those in the wider community objected.

For this school year, the infant school’s “published admission number” dropped from 60 pupils to 30, with just 22 children allocated places to start in reception this month.

During the meeting yesterday, councillors were told that across Brighton and Hove there were 369 unfilled reception places this month – 14 per cent of the total.

Labour councillor Jacob Taylor said that the proposals made sense and that the governors, heads and parents supported the move.

Councillor Taylor asked about the effect of falling numbers on primary and infant schools across Brighton and Hove – and whether reduced numbers led to smaller classes and a “narrow offer”.

The council’s head of schools organisation Richard Barker said that school funding was based on the number of pupils so falling numbers would mean less money.

He said: “The biggest pressure on the school is managing a downward budget. There becomes a point where you have to have certain things in place in a school – a teacher, there needs to be support for those students, curriculum materials, etc.

“The key is ensuring you have sufficient funding available to put those things into each and every individual class and have the funding associated with the number of children to be able to afford that.”

Mr Barker said that schools would struggle to offer a more comprehensive curriculum with less money.

Labour councillor Ty Goddard asked about the data behind low birth rates and whether it was just an issue for Brighton and Hove.

Mr Barker said that London was also experiencing the same “downward” demographic shift which is becoming a broader national issue.

Factors affecting Brighton and Hove include the limited areas for development compared with other parts of Sussex, where larger housing developments are being built.

The council’s executive director for families, children and learning Deb Austin said that census data from 2011 to 2021 showed that the number of nought to four-year-olds had fallen 6 per cent nationally and 22 per cent in Brighton and Hove.

She said: “That gives you quite a stark overview of the challenge we are facing as a city in terms of the number of school places we have and the significantly fewer numbers of children looking for school places.”

Green councillor Sue Shanks said that people were moving out of Brighton and Hove because they could not afford to live here – and there was a need for more family housing.

She said: “It would be good to have a look at economic development and how we manage. At one stage, we were expanding schools rapidly when I was involved – and now we’re having the opposition problem.

“It is partly about the census but it would be good to get some picture of where those people are going. Are they going to Worthing because it is so expensive to live in the city?”

Ms Austin said that there were areas nationally with more children and one of those was West Sussex.

The statutory notices are due to be published on Friday (15 September). The committee is expected to make a final decision on the proposed merger at a meeting on Monday 6 November.

If, as expected, it goes ahead, Hertford Infant School would vacate its premises in Hertford Road and the primary school would operate from the junior school site in Lynchet Close.