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.