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