WATCH: Brighton & Hove: Thousands Sign Petitions Against Reducing Pupil Numbers In Schools

Thousands of people have signed petitions against reducing pupil numbers at three schools in the city, triggering a council debate.

Three petitions against reducing published admission numbers (PAN) at Carden, Bevendean and Woodingdean Primary Schools have all passed the 1,250 signature threshold resulting in a debate when councillors meet on Thursday 16 December.

Parents at the three schools and Rudyard Kipling Primary School in Woodingdean have campaigned against the council’s plans to reduce admissions to reception classes from September 2023.

They plan to hold a protest outside Hove Town Hall at 4pm to show councillors the strength of feeling ahead of the meeting.

A public consultation currently underway proposed reducing the new intake at Carden Primary School in Hollingbury, from 60 to 30 pupils and Bevendean, Woodingdean and Rudyard Kipling from 60 to 45 children.

Consultation meetings in person and online at the seven schools affected by the proposals, which include Coldean, Queen’s Park and Saltdean Primary Schools, have attracted hundreds of parents keen to have their say on the proposals.

The reason behind the move is Brighton and Hove City Council predicts just 1,930 will apply for primary and infant spaces in September 2025 – down 20 per cent from this year.

To keep to the government-recommended surplus of 10 per cent spaces, this means the current reception capacity of 2,820 needs to be reduced by 540 over the next three years.

All three petitions highlight that the schools targeted this time around are in areas of deprivation, with high numbers of children accessing free school meals or special educational needs.

Carden Primary School mum Helen Davies said:

“It seems they’re looking at the edges of Brighton when there is a real need for the school to be physically in this location because of the population that need it locally.

“The unique thing is the speech and language centre, which I’m passionate about, it’s integrated with the school like a halfway house to give specialist intervention which is absolutely amazing, but they also get to do mainstream classes, so they get the best of both worlds.”

Emma Sheen

Emma Sheen’s son is in reception at Bevendean Primary School. He is profoundly deaf and attends the Launch Pad there, which supports deaf and hard of hearing children accessing mainstream education.

She said:

“They have teachers that are trained in British Sign Language and with the Launch Pad in the morning the children do English and maths so there aren’t too many children around them and they can get the support they need.

“My son really enjoys school. The low numbers in his class are really helping him because he can focus because he finds too many people around him difficult to handle.”

Woodingdean Primary School mum Imogen Jones (above) said she felt the council had not fully considered the impact of changing both schools in Woodingdean, leaving them open to mixed-aged classes.

She said:

“This feels like a knee-jerk reaction from the council that hasn’t really been thought through and hasn’t put the children first.

“Children should be at the heart of everything to do with schools and decision making around education.”

Parents at Rudyard Kipling Primary School in Woodingdean have set up a petition which on Friday 10 December stood just short of 700 signatures.

Kayleigh Poole (above), whose youngest child is still at the school, is concerned about the potential of mixed aged classes and the impact on funding.

She said:

“We’ve got 35 per cent of pupils with SEN (special educational needs), and we really cannot afford to have the funding taken away.

“We have had low birth rates in the last couple of years, but that’s not indicative of all the years to come.”

Earlier this year, Downs and Goldstone Primary Schools and Stanford Infant School all successfully appealed against reducing their published admission numbers (PAN) for 2022.

Results are pending for a late appeal to keep Brunswick Primary School in Hove as a four-form entry school.

Next year Balfour, Benfield, Moulsecoomb and West Blatchington Primary Schools are all reducing by a reception class for the September 2022 intake.

This year, the council cut the number of reception classes at Hangleton and Mile Oak Primary School and West Hove Infant School – Connaught Road.

The full Brighton and Hove City Council is at Hove Town Hall from 4.30pm on Thursday 16 December. It is scheduled for webcast on the council website.