Councillors heard from experts as they considered ideas to deal with a forecast of falling pupil numbers at secondary schools.
Brighton and Hove City Council is carrying out a “public engagement” exercise on proposals that were debated by the council’s People Overview and Scrutiny Committee yesterday (Wednesday 9 October).
Green councillor Sue Shanks said that parents regarded the current survey, in the Your Voice section of the council’s website, as a consultation. She asked what admissions changes would require the full council’s approval.
The deputy leader of the council Jacob Taylor said that any catchment area change would have to go before the full council by the end of February – after a formal six-week consultation.
But changes to a school’s published admission number (PAN), which is also part of the current discussion, did not require full council approval.
Councillor Taylor said that the current exercise was intended to get people talking about the issue of falling pupil numbers, with school funding based mainly on those numbers.
The council has proposed cutting 345 places in year 7 classrooms – from 2,560 to 2,215 – by September 2030.
The proposal involves cutting 90 places a year from the annual intake at both Blatchington Mill and Longhill, 60 places at both Dorothy Stringer and Varndean and 45 places at Patcham High.
No change is proposed at four schools which are academies, free schools or faith schools which set their own admission numbers.
The council has also published three maps of potential catchment areas that Councillor Taylor said were “illustrative” of what might be a way forward.
He said that the council wanted all children in Brighton and Hove to have a good education – and not one based on postcode.
The council wants greater priority given to children eligible for free school meals when allocating school places, starting with the year 7 group due to start secondary school next September.
As well as tackling falling pupil numbers, the council aims to address the “attainment gap” between disadvantaged children and those not eligible for free school meals.
Pupils in Brighton and Hove do better in GCSEs than the national average for all pupils – but disadvantaged children have below-average results.
Councillor Taylor said: “I believe that is a moral stain on the consciences of the city. We are a city that prides itself on being inclusive, progressive, caring and being welcoming. But in this area, we are in a sense failing large parts of our city.”
In response to public concerns that consultation is being rushed, Councillor Taylor said that any changes to admissions for September 2026 had to be published by next February.
Curtis James, co-founder of the campaign group Class Divide, said that Brighton could not afford to lose another secondary school after the closure of East Brighton College of Media Arts (Comart) – formerly Marina High and originally Stanley Deason – in 2005.
He said that there was an urgent need for “truly comprehensive” education in Brighton and Hove, with a diverse population that would improve school performances.
Mr James said: “In the past, some of the more advantaged, affluent and privileged have played a long game of social engineering.
“They’ve crafted an education system so riven with segregation and class inequality, it would make a Victorian mill owner blush.
“You might not think it’s that bad. It is. Brighton and Hove ranks 53rd out of 144 local authorities for school segregation.
“In Whitehawk, only 34 per cent of children achieved English and maths GCSE compared with 75 per cent in the highest-performing ward.”
Stephen Gorard, an expert in the sociology of education at Durham University, told councillors that when wealthier and poorer children were clustered in separate schools, there was more likely to be an “attainment gap”.
When there was an “even spread”, attainment gaps were reduced and academic achievement was raised.
Professor Gorard said: “You can raise the level simply by reducing this clustering of poorer children so it’s an average level.
“Yes, the most disadvantaged students gain the most but everybody gains. There don’t appear to be any losers. That’s the magic of it.”
A mother of three from Whitehawk, Beth Lee, has just applied for her daughter’s secondary school place for September next year. The only option was Longhill.
Mrs Lee said that she did not look at any other schools because she could not afford the £45 a month bus fare and would not benefit from free transport because her family was “not poor enough” to qualify for free school meals.
She said that children travelling from Whitehawk to Longhill had a choice of three school buses but they were timetabled within three minutes of each other.
Mrs Lee said: “If children miss those three buses, they have to get a number 2. Children from Whitehawk are making a long journey. Miss the bus and it’s a 55-minute journey.”
Labour councillor Andrei Czolak asked what the council could do to help families with transport.
Conservative councillor Anne Meadows said that, as a child, she took two buses to get to school, adding that an hour-long commute each day would add to the stress and mental health issues affecting young people.
Councillor Taylor said that he would like to see free school transport for all but the council did not have the money for it and did not operate the bus company.
One challenge was that most bus routes served the centre of Brighton so redrawing catchment areas would result in the need for bespoke bus services.
Since the “public engagement” opened on the Your Voice section of the council’s website, more than 1,000 people have responded, leaving comments on the proposed catchment areas.
Outside the meeting, the council’s executive director for families, children and learning Deb Austin said that she was pleased so many people were responding.
She said: “It’s a fantastic level of engagement. It’s important to hear people’s voices.”
Mrs Lee is right there, any Child that misses the School bus to Longhill, have to get the 21 up the Manor to get the Number 2 ( or a 1 to Bingo Hall to up Sutherland Rd)
Those school buses come from the Bus Depot & are scheduled 1 minute apart between them ,very stressful when you miss them.
But why do children in Whitehawk only get allocated Longhill as up until recently not everyone had free travel, so if willing to pay £45 a month for a Child Monthly ticket, then why can they get Varndean or Dorothy Stringer, this is why a lot of Families lie I think-use someone else’s Address as they only check that the Postcode is in the Catchment- not sure they check Address of child to every Application.
I know from Whitehawk you can put Baca, Cardinal Newman, & Hove Park
Yet there’s hardly no difference in the miles._
I’ve looked on Google maps, tapped in each school from Whitehawk
Dorothy Stringer 3.7 miles
Longhill 4.1 miles
Baca 4.3 miles
Hove Park ( Valley Campus-lower)
Varndean 4.1
Blatchington Mill 4.6
I’m not sure how correct that is, but just goes to show some kind of distance of them all.
Of course people want children to have equal access to a decent education. The “engagement” exercise the council is running really is asking the wrong questions and asking the obvious.
I’ve not heard councillor Taylor once talk about what his government will do to improve things at a national level. There is a direct connection to the issues faced locally and failings in national education policy, they should be setting out a proper long-term capital funding plan to bring all schools up to ‘good’ condition. Why are the administration seemingly afraid, or just not prepared, to challenge the new Labour government and push them to plug gaps and address failings at a national level!
Yes, the council can move the lines and tweak local arrangements, but until there is proper change to the national funding formula – eg to redirect funding back to schools in more deprived areas, then sadly I think the plans being proposed will only make marginal difference.
If Labour councillors were pushing back and challenging Ministers on the dire funding situation at a national level, I’d have more confidence that their intentions are genuine – without any sign of any challenge to Minister to address national funding flaws they seem to be complicit in the new Labour austerity agenda we’re seeing.
Proposals like breakfast clubs (whilst not unimportant) are just a gimmick unless the deeper rooted crisis in education funding is addressed by politicians.
I would suggest that is down to the MPs to inform their constituencies about what the government will do to improve things at a national level, rather than ward councillors.
Curtis James of Class Divide makes some very good points. At the edges of the City we have zero choice. The plans been clearly been engineered to achieve that.
A cross bus service from Mile Oak to Hangleton plus re drawing the boundaries so everyone gets access to 2-3 schools would help.
To achieve some kind of equal opportunity children should have a choice of at least 2 schools.
I think attainment is but a symptom of a much deeper issue of deprivation. Considering some of the postcodes in Whitehawk hit the top 3rd percentile according to the IMD index, I think this highlights a real need to tackle why children are disadvantaged in the first place, and challenge that.