School kids need community,
not commuting.

All Councillors will get to vote on the Council’s school admissions arrangements at the Council meeting on Thursday 27th February.

The Council is pushing ahead with an unpopular set of proposals that will cause children to be displaced from their catchment area schools and be forced to make long, isolated journeys to schools far from where they live.

The only change the Council has made following the consultation is to reduce the proportion of places reserved for the open admissions priority, but this doesn’t resolve the problems with a policy that has been opposed by so many families and all six local authority-maintained schools.

Please send an email to all Councillors expressing your concern and asking them to vote against these proposals. Your email doesn’t need to be long and could focus on the effect the proposals would have on your family. You might also like to highlight that:

• the proposals deliberately seek to displace some children from their catchment area schools, and that children who are displaced from the Stringer/Varndean catchment area will get a lower priority than any other children.
• the length and complexity of journeys that displaced children could have to make, and that they would be making these journeys in isolation and separated from their friendship groups.
• Councillors will need to explain these outcomes to families in their wards.

This button should open an email setup with a list of their addresses:

Alternatively, you can copy this list of email addresses into the ‘to’ field:

Mitchie.Alexander@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Jacob.Allen@brighton-hove.gov.uk; mohammed.asaduzzaman@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Faiza.Baghoth@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Tristram.Burden@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Julie.A.Cattell@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Andrei.Czolak@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Emma.Daniel@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Bruno.DeOliveira@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Amanda.Evans@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Theresa.Fowler@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Ty.Galvin@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Milla.Gauge@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Ty.Goddard@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Amanda.Grimshaw@brighton-hove.gov.uk; josh.guilmant@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Lucy.Helliwell@brighton-hove.gov.uk; John.Hewitt@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Liz.Loughran@brighton-hove.gov.uk; theresa.mackey@brighton-hove.gov.uk; David.McGregor@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Birgit.Miller@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Trevor.Muten@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Paul.Nann@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Jackie.oquinn@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Leslie.Pumm@brighton-hove.gov.uk; alan.robins@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Joy.Robinson@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Tim.Rowkins@brighton-hove.gov.uk; bella.sankey@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Tobias.Sheard@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Jacqui.Simon@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Jacob.Taylor@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Alison.Thomson@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Gary.Wilkinson@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Gilliane.Williams@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Maureen.Winder@brighton-hove.gov.uk; steve.davis@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Chloe.Goldsmith@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Raphael.Hill@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Ellen.Mcleay@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Kerry.Pickett@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Susan.Shanks@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Ollie.Sykes@brighton-hove.gov.uk; pete.west@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Emma.Hogan@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Ivan.Lyons@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Alistair.McNair@brighton-hove.gov.uk; anne.meadows@brighton-hove.gov.uk; carol.theobald@brighton-hove.gov.uk;

We have only just seen the Council’s papers on school admission arrangements, but our immediate reaction is that we are disappointed but not surprised to see that the Council is pushing ahead with a damaging set of proposals and that the Council has chosen to ignore the views of schools and parents.

The Council has ignored the opinion of all the LA-maintained secondary schools who unanimously opposed the introduction of an open admission priority. We are amazed that the Council has not considered it necessary to work closely with secondary schools to develop proposals that would benefit the city’s schools and its children. The data the Council has provided from the consultation indicates that there was also widespread opposition from parents to the introduction of an open admission priority. Simply reducing the percentage does not address the problems with the proposed open admission priority that have been highlighted throughout the consultation process.

The combined effect of the Council’s contradictory proposals will be to create an artificially oversubscribed catchment area for Dorothy Stringer/Varndean by simultaneously increasing the number of children and reducing the number of places. The Council’s own numbers indicate that the proposals would leave 63 children with no priority anywhere (54 from the Dorothy Stringer/Varndean catchment area and 9 from the Patcham catchment area). Many of these children would have to make long, complex and isolated journeys to school. The reduction in the percentage of places reserved for the open admission priority reduces the number of children who would be displaced, but it does not alter the negative effects that those children would experience.

The Council papers identify the level of concern that was raised about the way the consultation process was conducted and a failure to comply with the requirements of the School Admissions Code. The Council ran a divisive and confusing consultation. It started with only the Cabinet documents and then put out new information during the consultation. Its consultation documents contained major errors and misleading explanations of the Council’s proposals. 

We urge Councillors to provide genuine democratic scrutiny when these proposals come to Council. We would ask every Councillor to consider whether they are comfortable with the fact that children who are displaced from their catchment area will get a lower priority than any other children. We would also ask every Councillor to consider the length and complexity of journey that displaced children could have to make, in isolation and separated from their friendship groups. 

The consultation has ended, and the proposals will be brought to the full council meeting on the 27th. Papers for that meeting will need to be released by the 20th, so there is still time to influence the proposals.

Email our councillors and let them know what you think. This button should open an email setup with a list of their addresses:

Alternatively, you can copy this list of email addresses into the ‘to’ field:

Mitchie.Alexander@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Jacob.Allen@brighton-hove.gov.uk; mohammed.asaduzzaman@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Faiza.Baghoth@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Tristram.Burden@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Julie.A.Cattell@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Andrei.Czolak@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Emma.Daniel@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Bruno.DeOliveira@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Amanda.Evans@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Theresa.Fowler@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Ty.Galvin@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Milla.Gauge@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Ty.Goddard@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Amanda.Grimshaw@brighton-hove.gov.uk; josh.guilmant@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Lucy.Helliwell@brighton-hove.gov.uk; John.Hewitt@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Liz.Loughran@brighton-hove.gov.uk; theresa.mackey@brighton-hove.gov.uk; David.McGregor@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Birgit.Miller@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Trevor.Muten@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Paul.Nann@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Jackie.oquinn@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Leslie.Pumm@brighton-hove.gov.uk; alan.robins@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Joy.Robinson@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Tim.Rowkins@brighton-hove.gov.uk; bella.sankey@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Tobias.Sheard@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Jacqui.Simon@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Jacob.Taylor@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Alison.Thomson@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Gary.Wilkinson@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Gilliane.Williams@brighton-hove.gov.uk; Maureen.Winder@brighton-hove.gov.uk

The consultation has just ended with nearly 4000 responses to the survey. We have sent our response to the BHCC and have published it on this site.

Earlier today the six local authority schools published a response opposing the ‘open admission’ priority.

Following the protest yesterday, there has been press coverage from the BBC, ITV Meridian and the Argus, as well as local TV news.

We will have to wait and see what happens next keep up the pressure!

This Thursday, the 9th January at 8:30 pm, we are hosting an open virtual event to talk through the data that we have developed. This is an opportunity to ask any questions you may have – however, do let us know if you have any questions beforehand and we can try and make sure we answer them as part of the presentation.

Please sign up to attend.