Notice: Coombe Road School Action Group Meeting this Wednesday

There is a Coombe Road (CR) School Action Group Meeting on Wednesday 3rd January in the School Hall starting at 7pm.

All Coombe Road and St Martin's parents are welcome. Please come and join the action against the Secondary Admissions Review if you haven't already.

You can bring your copies of the petition to hand in at the meeting.

We will also be planning CR School's part in the Saturday 6th January public handover of the complete petition in front of the media and, hopefully, some members of the Council. We want them to see how many of us are unhappy with the proposed changes to admissions and perhaps listen to some of our concerns.

The petition, started by CR School, has gone Brighton-wide. The petition handover itself has been organized by Schools4Communities:

http://www.schools4communities.co.uk

The Coombe Road and St Martin's parents have done extremely well and collected a large number of signatures from across Moulsecoomb, Bevendean and Coldean, so well done! And keep it up, as you can hand them in to the Coombe Road School Office as late as the morning of Thursday 4th January.

Look forward to seeing you at the meeting.

Technorati Tags: Meetings, News, Notice, SAR

A Morning Photoshoot

Parents and children from CR School turned up on a freezing cold morning for a photoshoot for an opinion article to go into the Argus on Thursday 21st December which you can read on the blog here.

At least ??? of you turned up at 8.45am to show your commitment to forcing changes to the proposals that would leave children in Moulsecoomb and Bevendean with only one choice of school, Falmer. Historically, children from this area have been sent to Falmer, but also to Patcham, Varndean and Longhill. We object to the way that our choice of what would be the best secondary school for our child is about to be taken from us. There is no one size fits all!

The photographer from the Argus was - for some strange reason - under the impression that we would be demonstrating outside the school. As we were in the playground waiting, she drove past. When we finally got hold of her she returned to take a photograph that appeared in the final Argus article. Some parents had to go before the photographer turned up, but the photo above was taken when we were all there. Thanks to everyone who came.

News: Argus Opinion Article on 21st December 2006

The following article appeared in the Argus Opinion section (p.8 of the paper) on 21st December 2006:

Will new plans for school selection be fairer to city's families?

Proposed changes to Brighton and Hove's secondary school admissions policy have divided the city's parents. The city council plans to create a system of catchment areas which would guarantee every child a place at a nearby school. Under the current system, parents specify their top three choices of schools, and, when a school is over-subscribed, the children living nearest receive priority. But this means families that do not have a school near their home rarely get their first choice. The new system is intended to make this fairer by creating priority catchment areas. Parents would still make three choices but they would be guaranteed priority at one or two of their nearest schools. For a map of the catchment areas, go to www.theargus.co.uk.

NO

Tracey-Ann Ross, from the Schools4Communities group, says the proposed changes will make the system even more unfair. The group includes parents from Carden, Patcham, Stanford, Balfour and Coombe Road schools. She has children at Stanford Junior School in Brighton.

"Why is there upheaval in secondary school admissions? With only 15 spare spaces in the system, there is no room for flexibility.

The current distance measurement ensures local children access local schools. The vast majority of children (93 per cent) get one of their three preferences. Ninety per cent get their first choice.

The other seven per cent live further than 2.5km from any school. They have less chance of obtaining any of their three preferences. They are directed to schools with places left. These children come from many areas including south-east Brighton and wards such as Moulsecoomb, Westdene and Portslade.

These new proposals solve problems only for south-east Brighton

As there is no capacity in the system, others will lose out and must take up the unwanted places.

The problem does not go away but is merely shifted on to children in other areas.

Disadvantaged communities (Moulsecoomb, Bevendean, Stanmer and Coldean that sent 38 kids to Stringer and Varndean and 72 to Patcham in 2006) will lose out. Some 60 children from Prestonville and Westdene, who can walk to Dorothy Stringer, will have to travel four miles to Hove Park Lower in Hangleton.

And, with the introduction of a lottery system, any child in any area could lose out in the ballot and be sent to a distant school with no friends. Even if they live next door to a school.

Supporters of the proposals have presented south-east Brighton's gain as an improvement for the whole city but it is not. This complex system - untried anywhere else in the country - will create new problems, unnecessary worry and uncertainty for hundreds of children.

The new proposals introduce a combination of catchments, a lottery and equal preference. But even those who drew up the proposals admit they are not certain how this combination will work in practice.

Catchments have been drawn up by council officials, without proper consultation with parents. They will create artificial boundaries and divide communities.

There are changes that can be made that really could be fairer for all children in Brighton and Hove but until this late stage the council has not seriously considered them.

And whatever the claims about consulting people, until recently most parents had no idea what was planned. We do no oppose changes to make the admissions system fairer but we do oppose the council rushing to introduce a system that won't work.

That is why thousands of concerned parents have signed a petition against these changes and are asking for consultation. We urge the council to listen to them."

YES

Chris Bourne is an unofficial spokesman for parents in several areas of the city who currently cannot be guaranteed to get their children into their nearest schools. His children attend Somerhill Junior School in Hove.

"Since the precipitous introduction of the safe walking distance policy in 2004, the negative effects have got greater year-on-year. The disenfranchised areas of the city who cannot access their nearest school get bigger while the 'golden halos' around the popular schools get smaller.

The number of people not getting any of their top three choices and then being 'directed' to a distant school gets larger every year. Children from Somerhill school were allocated to seven different city schools last year.

There are 'reliable rumours' that Dorothy Stringer school will be massively over-subscribed for September 2007 entry. This implies that many people think they live close enough to get in when in fact they don't.

Under the first preference first system operating in conjunction with safe walking distance, they have effectively wasted their first preference and many will find they can't get their second or third choice because others live closer.

Under the current system, it really is a gamble trying to get your child a place at a secondary school. You have to second guess the preferences of other parents and you need to consider how far away you live from each school in your list.

Is it then worth adding an additional emotional and financial element to your gamble by actually moving house? If so, how near do you need to move?

It really is not surprising that people are acting against their own best interests in filling in their preference forms!

The current proposals were designed to end the geographical iniquity and with six key factors in mind: access to preferred schools; links between schools and communities; increased opportunity for children to transfer with their peers; travelling distance; parental preference and enabling a better spread of children.

The proposals admirably achieve these objectives. The use of catchment areas in conjunction with the use of the equal preference system and a ballot to allocate places to over-subscribed schools will enable access to all children in the area, provide peer group and community access to the schools and, over time, achieve the aim of bringing up the less favoured schools.

The ballot enables everyone to have an equal chance of accessing their preferred school. After initial allocation, any discrepancies, such as where someone who chose an under-subscribed school but was allocated to an over-subscribed school, will be removed by means of the computer swapping places to give the maximum possible number of highest placed preferences being satisfied.

Under this system, all Somerhill children will have access to Blatchington Mill and Hove Park schools. There are many people around the city trying to maintain their current privileged position and many of the suggestions for more consideration seem simply tactics designed to ensure the current iniquitous policy continues yet another year."

Technorati Tags: Argus, News, SAR

News: Download Radio 4's "You and Yours" - It's about the SAR

This last Monday Radio 4's "You and Yours" covered the Secondary Admissions Review.

Pat Hawkes is interviewed and seems to think that most parents will be happy with the proposals for fixed catchments, and that they will solve the problems in the city. This interview did occur several weeks ago, and I hope that she will listen to the large numbers of parents who are shocked and upset at the proposals.

Download an mp3 file of the programme here.

How Does the Fixed Catchment Affect You? Tell Us Your Story

Let us know how the new proposals for the fixed catchment for Falmer in 2008 will affect you. Post your stories and opinions on this article - you can leave them anonymously.

What will you have to do if the fixed catchment for Falmer goes through in 2008?
How will it affect you and your community?
How do you feel about it all?

If you do not how to post a comment, look at my explanation here:

How to Post a Comment

Notice: Meeting at Coombe Road School on Tuesday

There is a meeting on Tuesday 12th December at 7pm, Main Hall, Coombe Road School, for parents concerned about the proposals of the Secondary Admissions Review.

Please come along and support our communities to ensure that the regeneration of Bevendean and Moulsecoomb continues and is not undermined by the new fixed catchment for Falmer/Patcham (and especially for Falmer), and also that our choice of schools for our children is not removed. One school does not suit all.

Hope to see you there.

Notice: Coombe Road School Christmas Fair Tomorrow!

The Fair starts at 11am on Saturday 9th December at the School. All welcome!

Keep checking the Friends of Coombe Road website for information on events at the school in the run up to Christmas.

http://www.friendsofcoomberoad.org.uk/

Looking forward to seeing you at the Christmas Fair.

Notice: Get Heard at the Labour Advice Surgery Saturday 9th December

Our local councillors for the Moulsecoomb & Bevendean wards including the Coombe Road, Tenantry & Meadowview areas, are holding their next Labour Action Team advice surgery at Manna Deli in Coombe Road on Saturday 9th December between 10am-11.30am.

I envisage that the venue will possibly not be large enough! Please use this opportunity to vocalise your thoughts in person to those that 'should' be fighting for us!

Please bear in mind that this is the same day as Coombe Road school's Christmas Fair which starts at 11am so be sure to come to the fair too!

Write to Members of the Children's Families and Schools Committee

Here are the members of the Children, Families and Schools Committee, who will make the final decision on the Secondary Admissions Review proposals put together by the Working Group. It is strongly advised that you email them as soon as possible to let them know of your concerns about the Secondary Admissions Review. If you haven't yet written to them, get writing now.

You can write to these Councillors at:
c/o Kings House, Grand Avenue, Hove BN3 2LS

Email addresses are given below.

Try to ask some questions in your letters/emails as you are more likely to get a reply.

Jayne Bennett
Independent, Stanford Ward
jayne.bennett@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Vanessa Brown
Conservative, Stanford Ward
vanessa.brown@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Pat Hawkes (Chair)
Labour, Hollingbury & Stanmer
pat.hawkes@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Jack Hazelgrove
Labour, Moulsecoomb & Bevendean
jack.hazelgrove@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Lynda Hyde
Conservative, Rottingdean Coastal
lynda.hyde@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Sue John
Labour, South Portslade
sue.john@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Ted Kemble
Conservative, Wish
ted.kemble@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Richard Mallender
Green, Preston Park
richard.mallender@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Juliet McCaffery (Vice Chair)
Labour, Preston Park
juliet.mccaffery@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Ken Norman
Conservative, Withdean
ken.norman@brighton-hove.gov.uk


You might also - if you have some time on your hands (I know, unlikely as it's Christmas!), a strong writing hand and if your writing is fairly legible (hmm) - like to hand write your letters to demonstrate how passionately you feel. However, that's quite some feat when you have so many people to write to, so this is by no means expected.

Advice on Action to Take!

If you are unhappy with the proposals of the Secondary Admissions Review, do all or some of the suggestions for action given below.

If you are already doing these things, then well done! And please keep doing them, we mustn't let the pressure drop before the vital Childrens, Families and Schools Committee meeting in January. (Although we will all need a few days off for Christmas.)

• Keep writing to Councillors, and it is now important to contact members of the Children, Families and Schools Committee with your concerns, especially if you haven't yet done so. Keep up the pressure.
• Write to Gil Sweetenham , the Assistant Director of Education, and ask him why he did not consult every parent, and why Free School Meals banding was thrown out so quickly and not modelled.
  gil.sweetenham@brighton-hove.gov.uk
• Write to the Editor at the Argus and to the editors of national papers like: The Guardian, The Independent, The Times, The Sunday Times, and The Observer on Sunday.
  
• Contact our local MP, Dr Des Turner, and tell him it's not too late to do something about the proposals put forward by the SAR. Ask him for his support.
• Sign the Coombe Road School Petition at the School Christmas Fair on Saturday (starts 11am).
  
• If you are not at Coombe Road School, contact
  enquiries@schools4communities
  and ask them to send you information about starting a petition at your school.
• Talk to other parents in the playground about the Secondary Admissions Review when you pick up or drop off your children. Many of them are still not aware of the proposed changes, and need to be informed. Some parents do not have the Internet, and gossip is a great way to keep them in the information loop. Also, families in Bevendean and Moulsecoomb may not realise that the changes will not just affect their children, but will affect the community in other ways, for example residents leaving the area and landlords buying up properties.
  
• Write your comments about the Secondary Admission Review to
  myview@schools4communities.co.uk
  As these will be collated, printed, and sent to the Children, Families and Schools Committee by Schools4Communities. This will ensure that your thoughts on the SAR are passed on properly to those Council members.

News: Meeting at Park View pub on Wednesday night

Parents from across Brighton arrived at the Park View pub on Monday night, all unhappy at the new proposals of the Secondary Admissions Review. The meeting was organized by a group of parents and concerned residents who call themselves "schools4communities".

www.schools4communities.co.uk

There were so many people present that two separate meetings had to be convened and the results collated at the end in a third meeting. We finished near midnight when the pub staff threw us out.

There is widespread and passionate opposition to the proposals of the Secondary Admissions Review (SAR), alongside a willingness to committed and co-ordinated action to try and prevent these changes from taking effect.

Parents are shocked that more effort was not made to ensure that they were all aware of the process of development of the SAR proposals since the beginning, and also more effort was not made to involve parents on the PSG from areas such as our own.

There was strong support from other areas for families from parts of Stanmer, Coombe Road, Coldean, Bevendean and Moulsecoomb, who face the possbility of a single fixed catchment for Falmer. Drawing such a high proportion of children from deprived social backgrounds into one school creates a narrow social mix that is unfair and looks like social exclusion.

In Falmer's case, they are making improvements, but my concern is that under the proposals for fixed catchments from 2008, that these improvements will be damaged by a potentially larger intake of social deprivation. The new system simply moves the issue of Falmer School from the central East Brighton wards to the more comprehensive mix around the small area of Coombe Road, an area that on its own will make little difference.

I would be very interested to speak to Falmer School and find out what they think of the SAR's proposals. I also want to know more about the improvements they have been making.

There is no easy solution to the situation that we currently have, brought about in part by the closure of COMART and the imbalance of schools in East versus West Brighton. Moreover, the lack of schools in the East is not the only issue. The largest deprived areas are in this part of the city too, so that Falmer ends up inevitably under the proposed system as the school with the highest level of social deprivation, and the least comprehensive intake. The areas in the East of the city drawn into catchments for better schools are generally more affluent.

Schools4Communities are now co-ordinating a Brighton-wide campaign, and if you would be interested to represent Moulsecoomb, Bevendean, or Coldean in the group, or to support the campaign, please contact them at:

enquiries@schools4communities.co.uk

News: Moulsecoomb Leisure Centre Meeting on Monday

Several parents attended the Moulsecoomb Meeting at the Leisure Centre on Monday.

The agenda did not specifically deal with the Secondary Admissions Review (SAR), but was concerned with development issues around the Lewes Road area, and many of those attending were older residents in the area. Those parents from Coombe Road who were there decided it would not be appropriate to raise the issue of the Secondary Admissions Review at the meeting. The speaker was Liz Hobden from the Council's planning department. Discussion was mainly about land usage and road and transport infrastructure to the area.

Cllr Anne Meadows mentioned an academy at Falmer briefly in the context of discussion about the proposed Falmer stadium. Quoting the parent who sent me this information:

"She is obviously a big fan of the Academy and sounded like she really wanted to push it at all costs - her main emphasis being on creating training and life-long learning opportunities for local unemployed and links with the football club."

What also emerged is that consultation with residents on the Council's 20 year development plan is a consultation which finishes on the 21st December. Surprise suprise! Residents have only just found out about the plans. The regeneration of the Lewes Road Area may well be an issue for you, and there is no reason why you should not contact members of the Council about this too - although do keep working on the SAR!

Here's some information on the Council's website for the Regeneration of the Lewes Road Area. Again, difficult to find more than this
http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/index.cfm?request=c1145688

And this is info on the proposed Preston Barracks regeneration scheme:
http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/index.cfm?request=c1113778

And this is the web page for the whole larger scheme across Brighton & Hove:
http://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/index.cfm?request=c1120682

I am going to leave it at that now on the regeneration and concentrate on othe SAR, but if any of you find anything useful here relating to the SAR, please add it as a comment or email us on:

saynotothesar@gmail.com

Thanks for patiently waiting for this post, it's been a busy few days. And a big thanks to the parents who attended the meeting and passed this information on to me.

Notice: Sign the Petition at Coombe Road School on Wednesday

There will be another opportunity to sign the petition at Coombe Road School at 3pm in the Junior Hall on Wednesday when you pick up your children up.

Even if you are happy with the fixed catchments, come and talk to other parents and find out what it actually might mean for you. It isn't just about your child's education, it will have a big impact on the local communities in the Falmer catchment.

Click on these links:
Letter to send to Councillors and a list of
Who to Contact and How
if you want to do more.

You can find other information and articles by clicking on the blog archive on the right-hand side of the homepage. Some of the older posts are hidden now, so if you click on the arrows in the archive you will make them visible.

A useful website

The following website is full of lots of useful information about the Secondary Admissions Review, and argues that it has not been thorough, because it has failed to consider some important options. Take a look.

www.schools4communities.co.uk

I did publish this on an earlier post, but thought it deserved another mention and a post of its own.

Notice: Meeting in Park View Pub this Wed 8pm

One of the parents at the Balfour School meeting sent this out:

"How about meeting on Wednesday the 6th December at 8pm in the Park View Pub to plan our next steps after a very successful meeting last night, good turn out!! Please let me know if you can make it. It would be good to get a cross sections of schools and areas represented."

It would be good for us to build links across the city. The only way we will really turn this round is if we all work together, so if you can go on Wednesday do, because every face will help. The parents from the Varndean/Stringer catchment have concerns that overlap with our own. You will be welcome.

How to Post a Comment

Yes, I guess it's not easy after all, and after a request, I thought I'd write an article to help.

1. If you want to comment on an article here, then you need to click on the pale blue "comments" link at the bottom of an article. You'll be taken to the comment page.

2. You can fill in your comment in the box where the cursor, or text line, is flashing.

3. After that you'll need to click to select whether you want to post from either:

a. your gmail account, if you have one, but most of you will probably want to select "other" or "Anonymous".

b. "other": you can just put in a first name/surname name, or an alias (Marta Hari, Ghandi, Bart Simpson, whatever you like), and you can leave "your web page" blank, unless you have one and you want to put it to go in as a link at the end of your comment.

OR

c. "Anonymous": the easiest to use, as you are not required to put in a name.

4. When you have selected the right one and added the details you need to add, then go down to the bottom of the page and click "Publish Your Comment".

That's it. I hope.

With any luck, I'll check shortly afterwards and get it put up on the website. You'll be a published writer at this point.

I'm moderating comments to make sure that they are "family friendly," i.e. no swearing or malicious personal attacks. I will happily put up comments that disagree with my point of view as I'd rather a good honest debate than evil censorship.

Councillors and Civil Servants Open Your Ears!

This is a bit of a rant, and hopefully it will give you a chance to let off some steam too. Do you feel like you are being treated like an idiot, or not really heard? Then read on. Otherwise, go get a cup of cocoa and take a break from the stress.

I get a strong sense that the Council are just not singing off the same hymn sheet that parents are. Whenever the Council Official speaks at a public meeting - so far Gil Sweetenham - I hear the same arguments repeated over and over again. It's that broken record assertiveness technique at which he is so astonishingly adept, and which makes officials everywhere so hard-of-hearing when it comes to parents and their concerns. Open up your ears Mr Sweetenham!

And this public representation of the Working Group leads me to sense that it just does not recognise the overwhelming agreement between parents who say, "We want social justice to be the primary criteria by which you design your proposals, because we want all our children to get a good education." One parent at the Balfour School meeting last week put it well when they said that the system would not be fair until all the schools in Brighton are good schools.

Social justice means ensuring a comprehensive intake for all our schools. A comprehensive intake involves making sure that a schools intake comes from across a wide variety of backgrounds: this is usually agreed to produce the best performance for children across the board, whatever their needs, and rural schools usually do better in this sense as they have a larger catchment area with a broader spectrum of children. Ideally this would include rich, poor, working class, middleclass, or from different cultural backgrounds, religious denominations, and so on, although it is very difficult to ensure that sort of variety of a mix. It all promotes a richer learning experience in which children are less likely to be isolated because no group dominates particularly.

So, surely the Secondary Admissions Review should promote this over and above any other criteria for selection? And how will the possible single catchment for Falmer manage this at all? It seems to me that it will lead to a "ghetto" school. I suspect that it would have a less comprehensive under the new fixed catchment in 2008, than it does currently.

So you might think that the point of the admissions review is to give parents choice, but apparently it is not about choice. Mr Sweetenham told us it's about being able to express a preference. But how can you express a preference if there is no choice?

OK then, surely if there is no choice it's about creating good schools all round and educating children. Isn't that what the education system is about? Admissions are therefore a hugely significant doorway to that period of secondary education as they enable that comprehensive intake? But under the proposed fixed catchments, this doorway becomes so much more significant because the future is so much more uncertain for some children faced with a "ghettoized school".

Free School Meals
When I spoke to a council employee last week about the Admissions Review, I asked how important sharing Free School Meals allocation between schools has been. Free School Meals (FSM) are an indication of deprivation, and under a comprehensive school system, those kids from deprived backgrounds would be spread across all the schools in the city. They said it wasn't a "main consideration", then said it was still "important". They admitted that transport, links between schools and communities and the simplicity of the process were, "considered more highly...maybe." Well, this is certainly echoed by officials at public meetings: that's their mantra and it shuts out the sound of "social justice" and "comprehensive" when it comes to Falmer.

Best for "the whole city"
When Gil Sweetenham says that fixed catchments are the best solution for the "whole city", that doesn't just mean children, it means businesses, students, and residents - maybe the Council too. "Hooray!" you may say, but shouldn't the primary beneficiaries of any admissions process be all our children. After all, the whole city can only gain in the long-term from all our childrens' succeeding.

Transport
I can see the Council's eyes light-up with a Swiss efficiency at a smooth transport system, requiring no extra effort on the their part to put on school bus services for children as they can use already existent bus routes. I think the Council see fewer cars on the roads taking children to school, so that local business is not disrupted by the school run.

Even so, there are a lots of children in East Brighton who will be travelling some distance to their local school. Fact is, there are not nearly as many schools in the east of the city. Many parents will still prefer to drop them off by car when no dedicated school bus service is available. And the big question remains, "So, Mr Civil Servant, exactly how does this marvellously efficient transport system based on all those colourful maps ensure our children get a shot at a decent secondary education?"

Can I add as a warning to all parents that seeing the kids going to Falmer run the gauntlet each morning from the bus stop across the slip roads to the A27 gives me the shivers every time I pass.

A simple admissions system
Then, they want parents to be able to understand a simple system. In this way, perhaps the Council will be able to avoid the emotional and financial burden of appeals against the admission results by distressed parents and kids? Then again, a simple admissions process may lead to years of complex difficulties for children sent to sub-standard schools - and by "sub-standard" I mean a school that is only "satisfactory", because "satisfactory" is not good enough for any child.

Links between schools and communities
And I keep hearing about links between schools and communities, but I'm sure what this means exactly; it sounds suspiciously like empty spin. What would these links achieve if the school is not providing a good education for children? Surely that's the first priority, and a responsibility not simply of the local school, but of the city of Brighton & Hove as a whole. I'd rather my child travelled some distance and received a decent education, than that they were able to walk to school, but received a "satisfactory"one (and that's the fragile state it is currently in at Falmer, it may change post the 2008 fixed catchments).

The nod they give to social justice is slight and insincere. All the talk of each catchment taking its share of socio-economic deprivation is about keeping us quiet - more spin. The pill still tastes bitter. Do they really think any parent in the now proposed Falmer 2008 catchment are stupid enough to believe that our Free School Meals quota will evenly balanced with other catchments? No, they will be significantly higher, perhaps as high as 50% - correct me if I'm wrong Mr Sweetenham, but that's what I thought I heard at the Balfour School meeting and that's what I wrote down. Patcham's would be 8%, and other schools would get around 23%.

Don't they understand that until they make sure every school receives a comprehensive intake that the schools themselves will not get a chance to rise above that "satisfactory" level? Admissions is about ensuring equality of opportunity above all else, by ensuring that every school takes the strain and starts from the same position on intake. Fixed catchments deny a preference simply because they deny choice in the single catchments. And if you want real choice make sure all the schools are good.

So, for those Council Officials who replay that record over and over again, please stop and actually listen to parents who are talking more than sense, they are saying something that is actually right.

Come and sign the Coombe Road Petition on Monday!

On Monday 4th December at 3pm after school in the main hall you can come and sign the petition. We need as many signatures as possible.

This isn't just a problem for parents, as the proposals may damage the neighbourhood. If people move away to other catchment areas house prices may fall and we lose the diversity we are getting.

If you can, please come along.

Notice: Moulsecoomb Community Forum on Monday

On Monday 4th December at 6.30pm in the Moulsecoomb Leisure Centre there will be a meeting of the Moulsecoomb Community Forum.

Items on the agenda include Lewes Road development, the proposed stadium at Falmer, environmental issues and students.

If the fixed catchment areas goes through, then families may leave, and when they do, more students may move in creating an imbalance between permanent residents and people passing through the area. Some residents are very concerned about this.

If this and/or fixed catchments concerns you, please come to the meeting.

Notice: Coombe Road School's Christmas Fair 9th December

The Fair starts at 11am on Saturday 9th December at the School. All welcome!

Keep checking the Friends of Coombe Road website for information on events at the school in the run up to Christmas.

http://www.friendsofcoomberoad.org.uk/

Looking forward to seeing you at the Christmas Fair.

Who To Contact And How

You can email people, or send a letter to them at the following address:

c/o Kings House, Grand Avenue, Hove, BN3 2LS

Members of the Children, Families and Schools Committee (CFS): they are responsible for the final decision on the proposals put forward by the Working Group.

The letter that Coombe Road School provided for you to use, or to use to help you write your own letter, is on the blog here. You can just copy and paste it into your wordprocessor, add your address at the top, and sign it at the bottom.

Ken Norman
ken.norman@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Juliet McCaffery
juliet.mccaffery@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Richard Mallender
richard.mallender@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Ted Kemble
ted.kemble@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Sue John
sue.john@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Lynda Hyde
lynda.hyde@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Jack Hazelgrove
jack.hazelgrove@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Vanessa Brown
vanessa.brown@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Jayne Bennett
jayne.bennett@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Pat Hawkes (Chair)
pat.hawkes@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Council Officers
Alan McCarthy, Chief Executive, Brighton & Hove
alan.mccarthy@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Gil Sweetenham, Assistant Director of Education
gil.sweetenham@brighton-hove.gov.uk

David Hawker, Director of Education
david.hawker@brighton-hove.gov.uk


Local Councillors
Anne Meadows, Labour Member for Moulsecoomb and Bevendean
anne.meadows@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Jack Hazelgrove, Labour Member for Moulsecoomb and Bevendean
jack.hazelgrove@brighton-hove.gov.uk

Jeane Lepper, Labour Member for Hollingbury and Stanmer
jeane.lepper@brighton-hove.gov.uk


Member of Parliament for the area
Dr Desmond Turner MP
179, Preston Road
Brighton
BN1 6AG
Telephone: 01273 330610
Fax: 01273 500966
turnerd@parliament.uk

Write to the Argus
Letters to the Editor
Argus House
Crowhurst Road
Hollingbury
Brighton
BN1 8AR
editor@theargus.co.uk

News: Outraged Parents at Balfour School Meeting

The turnout for the Balfour School Meeting was high: at least 200 parents were there concerned for their childrens future from a variety of schools. I heard questions for Patcham, Westdene, Downs, Balfour, and Coombe Road. Others of you there may have heard a few more.

They were addressed by three speakers, Gil Sweetenham, the Assistant Director for Schools, Martin Powell, who is the representative for Preston Park Ward on the Parent Stakeholder Group and is also on the Working Group, and Robert Eastwood, a parent of a child at Balfour School. Tony Jones, the Headmaster of Balfour School, chaired the meeting.

The meeting was incredibly valuable, and I left feeling hopeful that an alternative solution might be reached as it seems we are not the only ones dismayed by the proposals. Parents were in fighting mood, and the general opinion was that fixed catchments were a bad idea. Only one parent openly supported them, asking Gil to be allowed to say something positive. Every other point raised seemed to try to undermine the proposed fixed catchments. Among the concerns raised were:

• the distances pupils will still have to travel,
  
• the possibility that their children might end up at Falmer - one woman was prepared to break the bank and send her child to private school instead,
  
• a sense that the fixed catchment idea was designed to placate a few parents from Queen's Park and the Hanovers,
• the feeling that parents had not been consulted properly throughout the process: that they knew little of it until the proposals were already put forward,
• and a strong sense that a duty to social justice - good schools for all, not just the richer families - was not possible under these proposals.

One parent summed it up at the end when they said that no system would be fair until every school in Brighton was a good school.

Robert Eastwood argued that a fairer means to allocate places would include sharing the deprived children across the city's schools by means of a system called "FSM banding", or "Free School Meals Banding". This had never been examined in depth by the Working Group as an option. It would be a way of ensuring all schools have a comprehensive, or socially broad, intake.

It was especially pleasing at the end of the meeting to hear Martin Powell say that he would request that this system be modelled properly by the Working Group. Gil Sweetenham looked surprised at this turnaround. For me, this was a hopeful end to a tempestuous and sometimes bitter meeting.

The results of the Secondary Admissions Review will only benefit the whole city if the whole city is included. Under the current proposals for fixed catchments, it seems that the children from areas less likely to complain, from areas already disenfranchised (left out), have their needs for a good education sacrificed. Thankfully, this issue is not just ours; we are not alone in our outrage at these proposals; there are others fighting for a fairer system.

More Detail

Gil spoke at length in support of the fixed catchments, adding a few extra reasons to the selection he presented Coombe Road parents with on Monday. It appeared that he was responding to queries he'd received from Balfour parents by email and trying to close down some of the objections in advance. These included:

• Why not build another school in East Brighton? Because funding would not be given as pupil numbers are staying the same;
• Why not add an extra class to over-subscribed schools? Perhaps they would, if there was a call for it, but that would have to be widespread.

He also tried to placate us with some snippets of information:

• The news that Learning Skills Council (LSC) is planning a new system, whereby pupils would be registered at a school, but able to take classes anywhere across the city. (However, this isn't due for 5 years, and looking at the LSC website, they deal with education for over 16s);
• He added that the review sought to redress the imbalance for families in the Wards along the seafront from Whitehawk and Queen's Park who, under the current system, were highly unlikely to get their first choice of schools. These parents have complained hard about their situation to the Council over the past few years;
• And of course the proposed Academy at Falmer.
  

Martin Powell stood up and tried to placate parents concerned about the choice between Dorothy Stringer and Varndean, as Varndean is seen as the "poor kids' school". He added that if it came to a ballot in the dual catchment, then all people would be treated equally.

There seemed to be a lot of fire-fighting going on, with Martin and Gil both attempting to douse the blaze before it got out of control. It became evident why when Robert Eastwood spoke. He went through some figures, and exposed the fact that it is unlikely that "the catchment will catch". In other words, there will be too many children in the catchment for Dorothy Stringer and Varndean, and those children will have to go out of the catchment to other schools. This would be decided by the ballot, and parents and children would be living in a great deal of uncertainty until the results were known. Ultimately, some of those children might well be sent to Falmer.

Mr Eastwood argued that "FSM banding" might be a better model, FSM meaning "Free School Meals". This was an option that the Working Group never examined, and may result in a more comprehensive, or socially broad, intake of children in the schools across Brighton. Under this system, all schools will have a spread of children from poor to rich backgrounds. No schools would just take the poorer children, or just take the richer children.

You can read more about "FSM banding" this on his website:

http://www.schools4communities.co.uk/

Let us know what you think of the FSM banding idea and of all schools having to take some of the children from economically deprived backgrounds.

Finding your way around this blog

In case you haven't seen a blog before, I thought you might like a few tips to find your way around.

On the homepage you'll see the articles listed down the page, and you can read them from here. You can also click on the header for the article and just view that article on its own.

On the top right of the blog homepage, under the title, you have the "Blog Archive". You can see the headlines here in puple, and if you click on the month, you can see past articles. This is great if you want to check out when the next event is going on as you won't have to scroll down the page to find it. All events will start with "Notice:..." so they can be seen easily.

At the end of each post, or article, there is a pale blue link called "Comments". If you are looking at the article on the blog homepage instead of clicking on the article headline and looking at the article page, you will not be able to see the comments, but you should be able to see how many there are. Wherever you are, you can see the comments, and add one yourself, by clicking on the "Comments" link.

Please comment, even if it is only a brief expression of support. We want the Council to know that there are lots of us who are unhappy with this fixed catchment solution. You can always do it anonymously.

Letter for Coombe Road parents to send out to Councillors etc...

To make your lives easy, here's the letter that Coombe Road School sent to you to use as a for your own complaints. You could also use it to help you to write your own personal letter.

Copy and paste the following letter into a document on your wordprocessor, add your address at the top and a signature at the bottom, and you can send it to one of the people on the "Who to Contact" sheet - the same list is found here on the blog.


The Letter

Dear

As a parent of a child at Coombe Road School, I would like to express my total opposition to the proposed new secondary admissions procedures. By placing our area in the catchment area for Falmer and Patcham schools, we are effectively being denied a choice. This lack of choice will be diminished still further if the amendment tabled by the Patcham parents leads to Falmer becoming a single catchment area.

The working group appears to have failed in all of the criteria it set itself:

• We have no access to our preferred school unless it happens to be Falmer (or maybe Patcham), currently two of the worst performing schools in Brighton & Hove;
• Our travelling distances will not be improved, as neither Falmer or Patcham schools are nearer to our area;
• Coombe Road currently fosters, and would want to continue to foster, links to many schools, but this will be cut down to two, or even one;
• Parental preference will only be met if we prefer to send our children to the least well-performing school(s). Any preference to send them to a successful secondary would only be considered in the virtually unheard of event of Dorothy Stringer or Varndean being undersubscribed;
• Year Six children will not have increased opportunities to transfer with friends from primary school. On the contrary, any families who are able will begin the process of moving to 'a better catchment area' not only splitting friends, but leading to the breakdown of the local community, and negative impact on the primary schools within the Falmer catchment area;
• The final point that this proposal will lead to a better balance in the spread of children from deprived wards would be laughable if it were not so offensive. The two successful Brighton secondaries have not only been incomprehensibly put in the same catchment area, but will be served by a carefully drawn catchment consisting of virtually all the affluent and middle-class areas of Brighton. On the other hand, Falmer will be served by only the less affluent areas of the city. A sprinkling of children on free school meals have been added all round, in a superficial attempt to make this seem fair.

All children should have the right to be educated at a good secondary school, and parents should have the right to choose where their children are educated. These new proposals deny any meaningful choice to large areas of the city and will increase the social divisions of the current admissions system. Children living in the BN2 4 area of the city will be severely disadvantaged by these proposals, and for this reason, we urge you to reconsider them.

Yours sincerely,

Angry parents from Coombe Road confront Assistant Director for Schools

On the evening of Monday 27th November some Coombe Road School parents joined Mrs Dykes and Mr O'Sullivan at the School to discuss the proposals on fixed catchment areas put forward by the Secondary Admissions Review (SAR). Gil Sweetenham, who is Chair of the Working Group that has put forward these proposals, was present to talk about the SAR and answer parents' questions.

Gil explained that Secondary admissions were never to be about "choice" for parents, but instead that parents were allowed to state a "preference". This is still the case with the fixed catchment areas, and parents will still be able to get their child into a school outside the fixed catchment, if there are not enough applications for that school. And what is the likelihood of Dorothy Stringer and Varndean being undersubscribed.

The reasons behind fixed catchments included:

• Making the admissions process simple and transparent;
• Maintaining community ties, so that as many children as possible go to a local school;
• Using current bus routes to avoid disruption of the transport services.
  

Of course, most of us found this baffling, as Falmer is further away than Varndean or Dorothy Stringer for many parents in the Coombe Road area. At the same time, the reason for some of the bizarre results is perhaps down to the fact that East Brighton has fewer schools to serve it than the West of the City, hence their "local" school is further away: in particular, the south of the city along the seafront to the Queen's Park Ward - the Wards that campaigned for a different system originally as they found their children falling outside the Varndean and Stringer distance measurements and ending up at Falmer.

When I spoke to Colin Race, Gil Sweetenham's assistant, on Monday afternoon, he stated that transport was a main consideration - although he then qualified that with "maybe". Social deprivation, on the other hand, was important, but not as important as the three reasons Gil gave above.

Gil explained that a great deal of thought and effort had gone into this process, and pulled out a colourful map most could not see as it was A4 and too far away. No number of colourful maps, however, could convince us that the situation is fair for our children.

When they got their chance, the parents were vocal in objecting on the grounds of:

• the lack of representation for our Ward in the meetings of the Parent Stakeholder Group and the parent focus groups of our area;
• a lack of representation and consultation that was down to shamefully bad communication with parents in our area by the Council;
  
• the boundaries of the catchment area all-too-conveniently sectioned off the poorer areas of Brighton to the worst schools - particularly if those of us in Bevendean and Moulsecoomb are only left with Falmer in our catchment area.
• a fixed catchment for Falmer/Patcham - now possibly only Falmer - would discourage people from moving to the area and lead to people moving away, a fall in house prices in our Ward. This would also result in a less diverse community and a growing and unbalanced student population.
  

The bottom line is that the SAR does not look fair - and quite literally when you look at the map. The dual catchment for Varndean and Dorothy Stringer appears to have little to worry about. Meanwhile, we have been offered Patcham and Falmer, two of the worst performing schools in the city. What's more, we may only end up with Falmer school, as Patcham residents attempt to annex the school.

The Varndean/Dorothy Stringer catchment also excludes most of Whitehawk, not to mention Hollingbury and Coldean. So, quite frankly, the Working Group's proposals for the SAR look hugely unfair and biased no matter what way they try to sell it to us.

Gil Sweetenham shrugged his shoulders much of the time, and at points he didn't seem to know what to say.

It is vital we get active and do everything we can to promote a fairer system. We need all the help and support we can get, so, if you can, please join us and help out. I'll be posting articles on the blog about how to take part in the campaign, and the progress we are making.

Notice: Meeting tonight at Balfour Junior School

There will be a meeting at 7pm tonight, Wednesday 29th November, at Balfour Junior School.

The Balfour Parents have invited parents from Stanford Junior and the Patcham area, but also welcome any other parents concerned about the new proposals on secondary school admissions.

We hope some of you will be able to come.

Unannounced Visit to the Parent Stakeholders Group

Two parents, paid a surprise visit to the Parent Stakeholders Group (PSG) meeting this evening, Tuesday 28th November.

They met our representative, Claire Jackson, a long-term resident of Coombe Road, and passionate about the area. She pledged her commitment to represent the Ward on the PSG.

They then asked if they might speak to the Group on behalf of the parents of Coombe Road School. Gil Sweetenham requested they leave the room while the members of the PSG made a decision. The Stakeholders Group was kind enough to give them the opportunity to present their views.

This is the speech they gave:




"This message is from the parents and children of Coombe Road School. Our parents come from a wide catchment that includes Bevendean and Moulsecoomb.

"You have spent the last eight months or so dedicating your time to this Secondary Admissions Review and have worked hard to put together the proposals that were made by the Working Group at the beginning of November. You acted as representatives for your Wards in a system which should encourage debate and negotiation in order to achieve a solution. We respect your efforts on behalf of the City.

"However, throughout the process our School received no information from the SAR; our school received no request for a member to join the Stakeholders Group; our school was not included in the public meetings held during the second half of the summer term; no representative from our Ward was present at any meeting throughout the process; and no parent received any correspondence direct from the LEA or the Council regarding focus groups or the Parent Stakeholder Group. Had we been aware of our lack of representation, we would have made every effort to rectify it.

"Our lack of representation is dismaying on its own. In addition, we are dismayed at the results of the SAR, which left us with a choice of the two worst performing schools in Brighton; although now it seems that we will only have one choice, and that all children from our Wards, areas not represented in the process, will be sent to Falmer school. More galling still is the fact that our Ward abuts the areas within the catchment for two of the best performing schools in Brighton. The parents in the next door catchment area are blessed with the best outcome for their children, who have a great start to their secondary education, and a promising future.
This review is unjust to our children. It is unfair that they be so easily banished from the privileges that a good education brings. The new Falmer fixed catchment amounts to social exclusion, ensuring that Falmer school never receives the comprehensive intake that might enable it to flourish.

"The results will be a longterm ghettoization of our Wards. Who would choose to live in a catchment area that leaves their children with a substandard education? We want our communities to flourish, to grow, to change and improve, but this sounds the death knell on that possibility. Our children deserve opportunities to learn, and to become valuable productive members of our society. These proposals, blatantly unfair, do not promise the best for our Wards, or ultimately for Brighton and Hove.
There is no even distribution of deprivation and disadvantage. This is a further disenfranchisement of people already shamefully excluded. I urge you to rethink the proposals and to request that the review place a higher value on social justice.

"Thank you."

Get Involved Now!

There's a meeting of the Parent Stakeholders Group on Tuesday 28th November, 7pm at Hove Town Hall. These are the people who were supposed to be representative of our interests through the process of the Secondary Admissions Review.

It is vital that we now have our views heard by the Parent Stakeholders Group. This meeting is our first opportunity to change the Review, and time is short. We only have until January 12th to get our voices heard and the sooner we start the better.

The Parent Stakeholder Group consists of about 23 parents and carers from across Brighton. However, only one person on that group, Claire Jackson, was from the Coombe Road/Bear Road area; her child goes to St Martyns. As far as we can tell, she was brought onto the Parent Stakeholder Group very late, in mid-September 2006. We wait for confirmation on an actual date.

There was no representative from Moulsecoomb/Bevendean on the Parent Stakeholders Group during the entire process of this Review so far.

The bottom line is that we don't think our views were represented on that group, or on the Working Group, which consisted of:

• Councillors: 2 Labour, 2 Conservative, 1 Green Party, 1 Liberal Democrat
• A parent governor from Cardinal Newman
• 4 representatives of the Parent Stakeholders Group who came from Preston Park, South Hove, Central Brighton and Hanover
  
• 3 local authority officers

After the meeting on 12th January 2007, the Working Group will send their proposals to "The Child, Families and Schools Committee" who will make the final decision about the Secondary Admissions Review and therefore the admissions process in 2008.

Please try to come tomorrow. We want to get our voice heard by the Parent Stakeholders as soon as possible to impress on them our fears for our children's future, but also for the future of our community, if the only choice for our children is Falmer.

I hope we will see some of you there.