And if you have, but know people who might like to, forward the following website address to them:
www.cohorts.co.uk
Those of you who are knocking on doors, keep up the good work!
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2 comments:
The new system is much fairer for many people in Brighton who just have no choice what so ever. at least you can send your kids to a local school. We can't necessarily do that if all are oversubscribed as we are too far away from any school.
You are looking for multiple choice - we have no choice. Go on just support your local school - help it to get better!
We do not have one "local" school to Coombe Road. No school is within walking distance for us; the nearest for walking distance is approximately 2.5km away, and that is Varndean if a pedestrian route is taken (I have used the maps.google.co.uk address as the end point, and my house on Ladysmith Road as the starting point and asked for a route on mappy.com). Falmer is actually further away than Stringer and Varndean by this method.
This area also have historical links with Patcham school. Many long term Coombe Road residents were sent as children to Patcham by their parents and would like to keep that connection. This would be possible under a dual catchment, but not guaranteed under a single catchment.
We have always supported our "local" schools, and many parents send their children to Falmer, so I do not think we can have that criticism levelled at us. We are already "[helping] it get better," as yous ay . I visited Falmer on Friday and was extremely impressed with what they are doing: streaming gifted children, who are producing great work; supporting individual children with their learning difficulties; and counter-acting bullying very successfully.
Perhaps it would do even better if parents from the South East of Brighton would also be prepared to continue to send their children there, since there are good transport links to the school along the Lewes Road.
However, I admit it is not a school suited to all children and parents need to make choices based on the individual child. I know of several mothers who have sent children to Falmer, but wish to send one of their children elsewhere because they do not think that they will do well at the School.
Coombe Road and Bevendean parents are very reasonable about where they try to send their children to school; we have always been realistic about the limits of the city system and our prospects of obtaining places at Stringer and Varndean.
I also think that it is a diversion to start blaming parents for the failure of schools when it should be the Council that are put in the stocks. Patcham and Portslade schools are not doing well, and Varndean is rapidly acquiring a bad reputation. This is much more about school management and Council support. Falmer School is improving with a great management team, but the prospect of an Academy, a limited catchment, and a 4.2 hectare site simply undermines that - it creates a sense of unease at the school and amongst parents which is counter-productive.
I admit that some changes need to be made, but the Council have alienated a huge number of parents in the way that they have chosen to go about this. The process has not been transparent, and many parents feel that the Council made bad choices in the ways that it contacted parents. If they had been successful, many more parents in Portslade, Bevendean, Moulsecoomb, and Patcham would have been aware and involved. If only a small proportion were unaware, you could understand the Council's criticism of parents; but the fact that the huge majority do not know undermines this.
Changes need to be made after the closure of COMART, but they will not be successful if parents from some areas start demonising parents from other areas for the lack of success of schools, and also for the current situation. It is far more complex than that, and as a result needs to be approached in a transparent, rigorous and even-handed way, with proper consultation of parents to provide qualitative data and a thorough analysis that will guide and support a series of proposals.
We have never had something as comfortable as "multiple choice" as you put it. Accessing many good schools has never been a dead cert. Even so, we don't want to be closed into a fixed catchment that appears to disconnect us from other parts of the city even more than we already are, and separate us from the chance of accessing some of the best schools.
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