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."
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