Parents blamed for missing school places in Brighton and Hove (From The Argus)
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Parents blamed for missing school places in Brighton and Hove
8:20am Sunday 3rd March 2013 in News By Peter Truman
Parents are being blamed for a rise in the number of children missing out on their school choice.
In 66 cases pupils missed out on all of their secondary school preferences, up from 58 last year.
But Brighton and Hove City Council has blamed parents for not putting down schools in their catchment area.
It said out of the 66 applicants who missed out not one had put their catchment area secondary school.
The council said in these instances pupils were offered places at the nearest schools to their home address that had spare spaces.
This year the number of applications for a secondary school place for September went down slightly, from 2,274 last year to 2,209 Preference In total 1,809 of pupils got their first preference, equating to 81.9% of applicants and almost identical to last year’s 81.7%.
There were 265 pupils who got their second preference (12%) and 69 got their third preference (3.12%).
Nearest school
The council’s cabinet member for children and young people Councillor Sue Shanks said: “Our catchment area system means that our young people are getting the chance to go to a school that’s near to them.
“Last year we had our best ever GCSE results, with Hove Park in particular showing a fantastic improvement.
“I know that all our schools work hard to help every child achieve so I am sure our children will receive a good education wherever they go to school.”
The creation of King’s School, the free school in Hove, is likely to have helped ease the strain on secondary school places.
St Aubyns
But there could be trouble in the offing with St Aubyns in Rottingdean possibly closing at the end of this academic year.
While it is expected the majority of prospective students to the £5,000 a year private school will try and get into other private establishments there is the possibility some will look to state education.
That will undoubtedly lead to additional pressure on secondary school places in the city.
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Comments(15)
Hove Actually
says...
9:06am Sun 3 Mar 13
Any parent would want the best for their child, and would naturally select the Hove schools
mimseycal
says...
9:50am Sun 3 Mar 13
Hove Actually
says...
11:10am Sun 3 Mar 13
How many children are now commuting to schools that are not the closest ones to their homes?
getThisCoalitionOut
says...
12:57pm Sun 3 Mar 13
Never mind the fact that so many schools are no good and no one in their right mind wants to go to them!
Disgraceful council - ignoring the real problem, THEM.
mimseycal
says...
1:17pm Sun 3 Mar 13
Hove Actually wrote:All Whitehawk pupils of secondary school age for starters. Our local secondary was closed down.
A better question for the greens would be
How many children are now commuting to schools that are not the closest ones to their homes?
george smith
says...
6:55pm Sun 3 Mar 13
woodie49
says...
7:35pm Sun 3 Mar 13
davyboy
says...
9:33pm Sun 3 Mar 13
momoevs5
says...
5:06pm Mon 4 Mar 13
davyboy
says...
10:03am Tue 5 Mar 13
momoevs5 wrote:why didn't your kids want the catchment school? having said that, did you opt for either of the nearer schools? too many seem to think that the 'top' schools in hove are the best, yet, one of them has just been raised to a 'good' standard by ofsted! i agree that some schools are under-performing, but it appears that most in the city are of the same standard, and you would get much the same stamdard of education in any one of them
I have two secondary schools on my doorstep, nearer to me than my 'one' catchment school!!... My twins didnt want the catchment school, didnt get any three of their preferences. So 'Admissions' have decided to stick them the other side of Brighton (2 bus journey).. Work that out then.....
mimseycal
says...
10:26am Tue 5 Mar 13
In essence what momoevs5 is saying is that there were three schools local to the twins and they were sent to a school two bus journeys away.
scottlee
says...
6:27pm Tue 5 Mar 13
They need to fill Aldridge Academy so they are trying to shoehorn children into it, we live 5 miles from Aldridge but only 1.4 miles from stringer.
davyboy
says...
12:32pm Wed 6 Mar 13
scottlee wrote:why are the children from moulsecoomb not going to Aldridge? that is their local school, but they all get the bus to patcham, and the kids from patcham get the bus to Blatch and Hove Park. there shouldn't be an option, until your local school is full. siblings have always gone to the same school, so this decision should be appealed. it is about time people supported their local schools, and not opted for others miles away, and then moan about having to get there!
Our child has been offered Brighton Aldridge rather than Stringer even though we are in the stringer catchment area and already have 2 siblings at Stringer! the council is being selective with their information.
They need to fill Aldridge Academy so they are trying to shoehorn children into it, we live 5 miles from Aldridge but only 1.4 miles from stringer.
Charismatic Andrew
says...
5:50pm Wed 6 Mar 13
davyboy wrote:Why do you say every year that Patcham children go to Blatch and Hove Park??!?!?. Every year I explain to you it's not true and every year you still come out with the same garbage.
scottlee wrote:why are the children from moulsecoomb not going to Aldridge? that is their local school, but they all get the bus to patcham, and the kids from patcham get the bus to Blatch and Hove Park. there shouldn't be an option, until your local school is full. siblings have always gone to the same school, so this decision should be appealed. it is about time people supported their local schools, and not opted for others miles away, and then moan about having to get there!
Our child has been offered Brighton Aldridge rather than Stringer even though we are in the stringer catchment area and already have 2 siblings at Stringer! the council is being selective with their information.
They need to fill Aldridge Academy so they are trying to shoehorn children into it, we live 5 miles from Aldridge but only 1.4 miles from stringer.
They never have and they never will.
They couldn't get into Blatch even if they wanted to because of the catchment area system and why would they travel all the way to Hove Park when there is an equally good (if not better) school on their doorstep. I don't understand why you come out with this nonsense every year.
mimseycal says...
8:46am Sun 3 Mar 13