One in five Brighton youngsters lose out on secondary school place (From The Argus)

Anyone who lives in the Seven Dials area who wants to appeal against an allocation to Hove Park will have a good case based on the new bus timetables that begin at the end of the month. The abolition of the 27A will mean that the quickest route home from the lower school will involve a 37 minute wait after school for the 56. How can Brighton and Hove insist children travel miles to school then not provide proper bus links?

You already get very little choice due to the lottery zones

HP parent wrote:
Anyone who lives in the Seven Dials area who wants to appeal against an allocation to Hove Park will have a good case based on the new bus timetables that begin at the end of the month. The abolition of the 27A will mean that the quickest route home from the lower school will involve a 37 minute wait after school for the 56. How can Brighton and Hove insist children travel miles to school then not provide proper bus links?

hove park is not the ideal school for kids in the seven dials area, but again it is one of those areas with no local school, like whitehawk. the council needs to seriously consider new secondary schools, regardless of cost. the obvious journey to/from hove park is service 7 to george st, and then 5b to school. not a quick journey by any means, but better than a long wait for a 56, which will only be a small bus anyway. wherever kids from 7 dials go, it will involve a journey where they have to change buses, even to varndean/stringer. if enough kids from the area are attending this school, then the council MAY put on a bus link, but don't hold your breath. BM/HP get bus links from all over the city, so why not seven dials. in fact, having just checked the bus company web site, there IS a direct link to HP Lower, from seven dials, service 93, but it only runs in the mornings!!!! if the kids need this to get to school, why not to get home again? good question to the council, who fund this route. kids do not need to wait for the 56 though, as 5b's run every 10 mins, to link with 7's at blatchington rd. having been a bus driver in brighton, i can assure you many kids use this route to get home. any family who uses the 'no bus link' ploy for an appeal will probably be told just what i have said, that there is a link in the morning, and plenty of buses in the afternoon. please also remember that if kids misbehave on dedicated school buses, these will be withdrawn at any time. as a former driver, having to put up with food being thrown around, and the general attitude of the kids, makes a hard job more difficult. i fully believe that teachers from the schools should ride on these school buses, to witness some of the behaviour for themselves. there are many times buses used on school runs are not fit for service afterwards, and have to return to the depot to be cleaned!!

Why put it this way round? Earlier article was right - "More Brighton children get their first choice school". In fact, not only have the number of first choices risen, so have the second choices. The new system is working.

MarcoPolo wrote:
Why put it this way round? Earlier article was right - "More Brighton children get their first choice school". In fact, not only have the number of first choices risen, so have the second choices. The new system is working.

Exactly. Headline should read:
"More than 80% of children in Brighton and Hove get their first choice of secondary school".
As you say, the system seems to be working!