Young people receiving free school meals will have greater priority for secondary school admissions in Brighton and Hove than others living closer.
The move was agreed by Brighton and Hove City Council’s Children, Families and Schools Committee after a public consultation on the topic received a positive response.
Councillors and the council’s head of school organisation Richard Barker cited support for the policy by the education and social mobility charity the Sutton Trust.
The charity said that oversubscribed schools with distance-based catchment areas had led to “selective comprehensives” and this would be addressed by the proposal.
Labour councillor Jacob Taylor, who co-chairs the council’s Children, Families and Schools Committee, said that most people who responded to the consultation were in favour of the idea.
He said that he wanted to address educational inequality in Brighton and Hove and said that every community should have a great local school.
Councillor Taylor said: “We do have an issue where educational outcomes are not equal for people from different backgrounds.
“Those from more disadvantaged backgrounds don’t attain the same level as those from non-disadvantaged backgrounds.
“We know that’s been an issue in this city for many years. We know that’s partly driven by the geography of the city and partly driven by the location of the schools.
“We’re proud to be putting forward this policy and we’re proud it’s got such support from the population.”
The Trust for Developing Communities’ director of youth work, Adam Muirhead, who represents the voluntary sector on the committee, said: “I offer a ringing endorsement for systemic responses to systemic educational inequality.
“I have said before we cannot simply teach our way out of educational disadvantage.
“The proposed changes do represent a step in the right direction for the ways we can make Brighton and Hove favour for its care and consideration those most in need.”
Green councillor Sue Shanks praised Carly Goldsmith and the campaign group Class Divide for their work promoting the issue of educational inequality particularly in their podcast.
She said: “Poverty is a big issue, not just in education. Unfortunately, it did remind me of the reason we do not have a school in Whitehawk, which is why we’re doing this partly, is because it was closed down in 2005 by Labour.
“There are reasons for doing that. We really miss a school in that area so it means children have to travel long distances.”
If parents don’t value education neither will the children.
Start there ?
What about all the families inside catchment who are going to be moved somewhere else across the city! Sounds like hundreds of kids will need to take much longer journeys to schools the other side of town. Hardly green is it? Or community! Why not take the money from schools that do well, and invest more in the schools that do badly – then ALL children will have a better education, not just 30% randomly selected in a social experiment. Look at Patcham, for example, doing great after bigger investment, now expected to be oversubscribed for the first time in years. Investment in schools and better catchment areas are the solution, not forcing children to travel on public transport for hours every week.