Brighton and Hove: Parents protest at proposed school changes
Parents concerned about proposals to change secondary school admissions staged a protest outside council offices on Thursday.Brighton and Hove City Council in East Sussex wants to reduce the intake at three secondary schools, introducing an open admission policy and change the catchment areas for Longhill and Varndean and Dorothy Stringer.The authority said this will give parents more choice.But some parents claim it could mean up to 250 pupils having to travel long distances to get to school.
Dozens of parents protested outside Hove Town Hall before a meeting of the full council on Thursday.An eight-week consultation into the plans ends on Friday.
Parent Sally Bunkham said: "These plans would mean friendship groups would be completely broken up across the city, children would be sent in different directions away from their community, spending loads of time commuting."It's not increasing choice, it's slightly increasing chance for some families."Another parent, Anna Mouser, said: "Only one in four kids who don't have an older sibling are going to be going to their local school."We're talking about over an hour's travel each way for children who are 11. It won't actually fix anything, it's moving kids around like numbers on a spreadsheet."
Jacob Taylor, deputy leader of the Labour-run council, said the authority was trying to tackle several problems."We have falling pupil numbers and we have to address that issue" he said."There has been a long standing issue where some people feel their choice of schools is not as broad as others, so it's about saying 'could we have a fairer system?'"Some parents in the central areas don't feel that this system is fair for them, and we have to weigh that up in the consultation."He said more than 3,000 people have responded to the consultation.
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