A head teacher and governors are urging parents to make their voices heard in a public consultation about a proposal to cut the admission number at a popular Brighton school.
St Luke’s Primary School head Simon Wattam and the co-chairs of governors Barry Ling and Justine Stephens have written to parents at the school, which is in Queen’s Park Rise.
Their letter, sent on Friday 10 November, urged parents to take part in public meetings and respond to Brighton and Hove City Council’s public consultation.
The council has proposed reducing the reception intake at St Luke’s from three forms of entry, a total of 90 pupils in a year group, to 60 pupils, or two forms, from September 2025.
Nine schools face having their intake numbers cut as a quarter of reception class places are predicted to be unfilled by September 2025.
Fewer than 2,000 four to five-year-olds are expected to start school that year, leaving an excess of 651 places across Brighton and Hove, which would affect school funding.
In their letter, the St Luke’s head and governors said that losing a class would result in £140,000 in lost funding, wiping almost £1 million from the school’s budget over seven years.
Parents were told that the lost funding would affect music, PE, pastoral care and literacy support.
Schools receive a mix of basic funding and £4,655 a pupil, meaning smaller schools must manage many of the same costs with a smaller budget.
The letter said: “We would have a third less children to care for and educate but this would not mean that the cost of running the school would also be reduced by one-third.
“The cost of maintaining the building will stay the same but much of the school’s existing activities and provision would have to be reduced or cut as a result.
“The school building is currently undergoing a projected £1.4 million improvement programme – the biggest single planned maintenance investment Brighton and Hove City Council has ever undertaken.
“There is clearly a lack of coherent strategy because this substantial investment in the school’s infrastructure will be significantly underused if there is a reduction of children in the school.”
St Luke’s is currently three children below its published admission number (PAN) of 90.
The school said that, by 2026, the area of Hanover that it serves – including Carlton Hill Primary School’s catchment area – would be short by 10 children, not the proposed 30 to be cut from the intake.
Apart from the current school year, when 87 out of a possible 90 pupils started in reception, for the previous five years the school has been oversubscribed.
More than 110 families were naming St Luke’s as their first choice primary school, leaving many disappointed.
In 2018 and 2021, more than 130 families put St Luke’s as their first choice school.
The letter said: “The council has repeatedly stated to us over the years that, by cutting our reception intake from 90 to 60 we could provide a ‘ripple effect’ to help sustain other schools, presumably – though not stated – towards/in the Lewes Road vicinity.
“Meaning that children from our community would have to attend schools further away.
“As a result, parents may be more likely to drive their children to school, older children may not be able to walk home alone safely and children’s school friends may not be from the same area.”
A public meeting organised by St Luke’s Residents’ Association is due to take place on Monday 11 December at St Luke’s Church Hall, in Queen’s Park Road.
An online meeting with council representatives is expected to take place on Monday 4 December.
If the council does cut admissions to St Luke’s then the head teacher and governors are willing to take their case to the schools adjudicator.
The public consultation is open on Brighton and Hove City Council’s website until Friday 22 December.
They have every right to be annoyed. Intake should be cut for the worst schools first and this is the best school locally. If the intake is to be cut children will have no choice but to go to schools like Queens Park which is rated underperforming by Ofsted. This means kids will lose out on the best life opportunities as the council has failed them. Many kids that go to these schools do not have the best start in life so the least the council should do is try and give them the best education possible rather than condemning them to attend a school where many kids are not even taught how to read and write properly. Although, they are at least taught at Queens Park Primary School how they can easily change genders at an age when they still believe in Santa Claus.
Does your child go to Queens park? They too are having there intake numbers reduced! Ive never heard of my son come back telling me he can be whatever he wants lol they hear a lot of that nowadays from youtube etc and he is in year 6 now lol they have however, been taught age relevant PHSE and if it wasn’t for the fact he was in year, I would move him!. St Lukes has always had a waiting list so as if they will reduce the number of pupil going there, what a load of rubbish
If by “they are taught they can easily change genders” you mean the school is inclusive, diverse and welcoming of all regardless of how they identify, then yes you’ve got Queens Park School completely figured out. It’s such a welcoming community and during a time of positive transition the ofsted report was ‘required improvement’ which is exactly what the leadership team and new staff members are endeavouring. They are reshaping the school and the ofsted report was only done about two weeks after term started so it wasn’t a lot of time to implement the new strategies.
Your comment about Queen’s Park school is outrageous and should be not acceptable by Argus admin
This is a joke. Government invested over 1.4m from public funds to improve the school’s infrastructure and now they want to cut places so new kids can’t have a place there and enjoy the infrastructure they’ve paid for. It looks like a classic case where left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. Not sure what else to expect from this shambolic government we have at the moment
It’s the Labour run council that wants to cut numbers.
Queen’s Park Primary School is an AMAZING school with an AMAZING head teacher in Mrs Gale!
Queen’s Park is a lovely school with great teachers. The snobbery is undeserved.
Queen’s Park is a brilliant school my child is making huge progress there and the headteacher is doing a fantastic job in driving the school forwards.
I am the parent of two children at Queen’s Park school. It is a thriving, kind, multicultural, diverse, creative, and inclusive school. These values will be essential for the success of the next generation.
I’ve got two kids at Queens Park and we think it’s fantastic! They’re both very happy and look forward to going in each morning. The new head teacher Mrs Gale is a gem and there is immense positivity for the future of our school and community.
I am sad that through this consultation process local schools are pitched against each other. Instead of combining forces to find the best solution for our diverse community, schools end up fighting their individual corners.
With the improvement work well underway at Queen’s Park School, the local community has choice. Sadly, the proposal to reduce Queen’s Park School’s admissions puts that development at risk which once again restricts parental choice.
Irrespective of the outcome of this particular consultation, the problem won’t go away.
st lukes ofsted was given outstanding over 10 years ago, not that that bears even the slightest correlation with the quality of pupils school experience and preparation provided for life.
if anything the “needs improvement” score of QP is the best score you would want. Not so bad it is unsafe but not wasting precious teacher resources ticking unnecessary bureaucratic boxes and forcing pupils to rote learn pointless curriculum
Fully understand the desire of St Luke’s teachers and parents to protect the interest of their school but as a parent in Bear Road/Lewes Road community whose children, according to St Luke’s, ‘deserve to attend this excellent school’ I want to point out that my kids already attend a truly excellent school in Fairlight. And that there are other excellent schools in our community. St Luke’s should learn to campaign without the snobbishness, and without feeling the need to besmirch schools in neighbouring communities.
A good school should not seek to belittle or besmirch others in order to make themselves appear good. It doesn’t reflect well on your school, I’m afraid.
Communities in Brighton are having to think about their local school closing and having to move schools. It would be refreshing if St Luke’s campaigners would show respect to their neighbours and neighbouring schools rather than running them down in the name of self interest.
Well said. Fairlight is superb and that idea that St Luke’s is some sort of “savour” school for the poor is ridiculous.