Boost for children on free school meals

Hundreds of people have backed giving children who are eligible for free school meals greater priority when secondary school admissions are decided.

Now the proposal is to go before a Brighton and Hove City Council committee which is reviewing admissions against a backdrop of falling pupil numbers.

If councillors approve the proposed policy change, pupils on free school meals would have the third highest priority when applying for a secondary school place for September 2025.

At the moment about 25 per cent of children are eligible for free school meals – but the proportion at schools such as Blatchington Mill, Dorothy Stringer and Varndean is lower.

Meanwhile, above average numbers of children qualifying for free school meals attend the likes of Longhill, Hove Park, the Portslade Aldridge Community Academy (PACA) and the Brighton Aldridge Community Academy (BACA).

The council’s Children, Families and Schools Committee is due to discuss proposed admission changes next Monday (22 January) including a cut in reception year intakes at primary and infant schools.

A report said that the falling birth rate would affect secondary schools in future years just as it had been affecting primary schools in recent years.

The council has reduced the published admission number (PAN) at a number of primary and infant schools and plans to make further reductions as well as closing two smaller schools.

The trend follows a spell of high birth rates when “bulge classes” were introduced to cope with increasing pupil numbers.

But with fewer primary school pupils expected to be heading to secondary schools from 2025 onwards, the council has taken a fresh look at secondary admissions.

The campaign group Class Divide has spent the past three years calling for the council to give children who are eligible for free school meals better support.

It has wanted to open up more schools to young people living on Brighton and Hove’s most deprived estates, not least since Whitehawk’s secondary school was closed almost 20 years ago.

Brighton and Hove currently has 2,560 state secondary school places, with 2,279 required in 2025, according to the report to the Children, Families and Schools Committee.

Hundreds of secondary school places are expected to remain unfilled in Brighton and Hove from 2025 onwards, according to the report.

The numbers are projected to fall every year, with 2,011 secondary school places expected to be required in 2030 based on current school census numbers.

Before making adjustments to any individual secondary school admissions, the council consulted the community on giving priority to pupils receiving free school meals.

There were 1,404 responses to the consultation which took place over six weeks in November and December.

The results showed that 593 respondents tended to agree or strongly agreed with the proposals, 401 tended to disagree or strongly disagreed and 300 people did not respond or did not know.

The report said: “Responses to the consultation included criticism that the council was virtue signalling, that travel journeys would increase and that families and communities would run the risk of being split, with implications for the health of children.

“Some responders referred back to their children’s experiences when they were the only child in their friendship group not to be offered a place in the same school as their friends and others highlighted that more uncertainty would increase young people’s anxiety levels.

“Free school meals was considered by some to be a blunt measure that unless assessed yearly would provide protection for some pupils even if families would no longer qualify for benefits as their circumstances had improved.

“Some responders felt a better approach would be to work on other strategies such as making housing more affordable and ensuring all schools perform at the same standard.

“Some responders were concerned about the impact on schools that would have fewer children and less funding as well as a concern that there was not sufficient information to demonstrate the impact of such a policy change and therefore any responses were not sufficiently informed.”

Any changes would affect “local authority maintained schools” in the first instance – Blatchington Mill, Dorothy Stringer, Hove Park, Longhill, Patcham High and Varndean School.

Academies, church schools and free schools are free to set their own admissions policies but, locally, have traditionally worked within the council’s framework

At secondary level, there are four schools in these categories that could chart their own course – Portslade Aldridge Community Academy (PACA) Brighton Aldridge Community Academy (BACA), Cardinal Newman RC Secondary School and King’s School.

Councillors are being asked to agree the changes to admission policy for secondary schools at the same time as they are being asked to reduce the intake at six primary and infant schools. The original proposals affected nine schools before a consultation.

Brighton and Hove currently has 2,610 places in reception classes but requires just 1,970 in 2025, with numbers reducing further to 1,787 by 2027.

Schools facing a reduced PAN from September next year are

• Brunswick Primary School, Hove, from 120 to 90
• Goldstone Primary School, Hove, from 90 to 60
• Patcham Infant School, Brighton, from 90 to 60
• Saltdean Primary School, from 90 to 60
• Stanford Infant School, Brighton, from 90 to 60
• St Luke’s Primary School, Brighton, from 90 to 60

Two separate reports going before councillors at the same meeting recommend closing St Peter’s Community Primary and Nursery School, in Portslade, and St Bartholomew’s Church of England Primary School, in Brighton.

The Children, Families and Schools Committee is due to meet at Hove Town Hall at 4pm on Monday 22 January. The meeting is scheduled to be webcast on the council’s website.