Brighton School Admissions Cuts Slammed At Community Meeting

Plans to cut the admission numbers at two primary schools were described as “ruthless” at a community meeting.

Teachers and governors spoke out about proposals to reduce the reception intakes by one “form of entry” at both Queen’s Park and St Luke’s, in Brighton, from September 2025 at a St Luke’s Residents’ Association meeting.

Brighton and Hove City Council is currently consulting the public on reducing the published admission number (PAN) at nine schools and on a proposal to close two schools.

The council said that the measures were necessary because Brighton and Hove primary schools had hundreds of surplus places.

A St Luke’s teacher and mother Lara Hedgecock, said that teachers’ welfare was not being considered in the proposals which she described as “ruthless”.

She said: “It is really unfair on our mental health. If we go through this process, you’re putting teachers – every year for the next several years – in a corner with redundancy … either choosing voluntary redundancy or facing a forced redundancy process.

“You’re pitting them against their own friends and their community each year. Each year, they’re going to be worrying about their jobs.”

The council’s head of schools organisation Richard Barker said that the government set the timescale for the consultation on the September 2025 intake and it had to be held now.

St Luke’s assistant head teacher Danny Annaly said that a smaller intake would cut off children from the Pankhurst Estate and East Brighton estates.

They would be less likely to be admitted to St Luke’s or Queen’s Park, he told a meeting at St Luke’s Church, in Queen’s Park Road, Brighton.

Mr Annaly said:

“What we’re going to be doing is hitting very hard two very vulnerable communities who at the moment are included in our schools.”

He said that the mix of pupils was good for the school but, with fewer places, the catchment area would shrink.

He added:

“What’s going to happen at St Luke’s is even more the catchment will be based around our school. Where are the Pankhurst Estate going to go?

“Reducing Queen’s Park to 30 … that’s just going to leave the house owners around Queen’s Park. It is unfair.”

Mr Annaly said that people from further away would struggle to pay for buses and that attendance would be a problem.

Queen’s Park Primary School head teacher Emma Gale said that she did not understand why the council was proposing to cut 60 places from the same area.

She said:

“This is one of the areas with the smallest shortfalls in pupil numbers. We are next to BN2 5 (the Whitehawk postcode) where we have a lot of children coming from – I’m sure St Luke’s is the same – where they do not have enough space for those children at City Academy Whitehawk and St Mark’s.

“I’m confused why such a high proportion of our pupil population is being removed potentially when we’re not in an area with a high deficit.”

She said that Elm Grove and Fairlight, two other nearby schools with more than one form of entry, were not targeted in the same way.

Mr Barker said that there had to be a balance between parental preferences and the location of schools – and the council was trying to marry up the factors to make sure that there were enough schools to serve all our local communities.

There was an outcry when Mr Barker said that the council wanted to maintain the viability of existing schools which was why it was proposing to reduce the intake at larger schools.

St Luke’s vice-chair of governors Justine Stephens said that academy schools were not being touched because they had separate admissions processes, as did church schools.

She said:

“I’ve been a governor for a long time. The policy of the school has been very clear. We are against academy status.

“We desperately want to stay as part of the community of schools in Brighton and Hove and everything that offers.

“For the first time ever, parents have come up to me at the school gate saying other schools are talking about academisation. We want to stay at 90. Why is this not on the table.”

Mr Barker said that the council – and councillors – did not want to promote academies.

He said that the intent was not to pitch schools against schools but, instead, to resolve the problem of too many spare places.

The proposals were in response to the falling number of children due to start primary school – with fewer than 2,000 children expected to start school in September 2025.

When birth rates were higher, about 10 years ago, the number was nearer 3,000 and schools locally had to expand to squeeze them all in.

The council’s approach has been to try to reduce admission numbers at bigger schools to protect smaller schools from having to close although the council has proposed closing two schools next summer.

Mr Barker said that more than 800 responses to the consultation had been received so far on the council’s website. The deadline to comment is on Thursday, December 22.

The council is also consulting on the proposed closure of St Bartholomew’s CofE Primary School, in Brighton, and St Peter’s Community School, in Portslade, from September 2023.

Councillors are due to debate two petitions objecting to closure at a meeting of the full council on Thursday (December 14).

A report on the results of the consultation and the proposed next steps is due to be presented to the council’s Children, Families and Schools Committee on Monday, January 22.

It had been due to be presented from Monday, January 8 but it has been put back until after a by-election on Thursday, January 11.

The by-election is in South Portslade where Labour councillor Les Hamilton, 82, stood down last month after serving as a councillor for more than 50 years.

The ward includes St Peter’s, one of the two schools that the council plans to close.