School sibling link could be cut (From The Argus)
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School sibling link could be cut
10:54am Monday 9th January 2012 in News By Rebecca Evans
The sibling link which gives children priority places at schools could be abolished if families move out of their school’s catchment area.
Brighton and Hove City Council has launched a consultation into plans which would mean children no longer have a prioritised right to a school place if they move to a different part of the city – even if their brother or sister is already at the school.
Proposals are part of a wide-ranging consultation into the complicated school admissions policy in the city.
The local authority is also seeking opinion on proposed catchment area boundary changes which would mainly affect children and parents in the west of the city.
Changes considered are to move the stretch of boundary between the Dorothy Stringer /Varndean catchment area and the Blatchington Mill/Hove Park catchment area westwards from the London to Brighton railway line to Dyke Road.
The proposals also include stretching the Portslade Aldridge Community Academy catchment area to include the whole of Portslade.
West Hove strain
Part of the reason behind the proposed changes is to ease the increasing pressure on schools in West Hove.
The number of children in Hove is growing annually and the local authority is looking at ways to ease the pressure not only on secondary but also primary schools in the area.
The council said the change will also mean more children will fall into the Dorothy Stringer catchment area as the school increases its intake from 311 to 330 pupils a year.
The local authority hopes the changes, if they get the go-ahead, will make it easier for children living between Dyke Road and the railway line to get to school.
Families have apparently complained it is difficult to travel to the Hove schools, despite the provision of the number 96 bus which runs to Blatchington Mill and Hove Park.
Complext system
A complicated admissions system has caused controversy since the catchment areas were implemented in 2008.
If the changes are agreed, they will be implemented in September 2013.
A council spokesman said it was always the intention to amend the sibling link to only be a priority within catchment areas from the next academic year.
He said: “When the current secondary admissions arrangements were introduced in 2008, the intention was that, with effect from 2013/14, the sibling priority would only apply as an oversubscription priority within the designated catchment area for a child’s home address.
“This delay was intended to allow the sibling link to be applied across catchment areas for those children already in secondary school as their parents/carers may have previously accepted places at schools anticipating the sibling link would apply regardless of home address. The delay allowed those links to work through.
“Should the proposals on catchment area changes be adopted, it is envisaged there will be a similar transitional protection for siblings of existing pupils.”
Labour group leader Councillor Gill Mitchell said the proposed move could “offer up more uncertainty” to parents.
She said: “I would like to know the reasons this is being proposed. It just seems to offer up more uncertainty as to where their children will go to school. It makes it more difficult to plan their lives.”
Comments(9)
MzEden1
says...
1:08pm Mon 9 Jan 12
It makes sense at that level to have siblings at the same school.
Dirk Gently
says...
4:11pm Mon 9 Jan 12
MzEden - The proposed change is only intended to prevent people who have moved home away from the school from still getting more children in, when what they ought to do is move all their children to the school nearest their new home.
I'm not sure how they intend to do it, but the article does state that the sibling link will still apply within the catchment area. What confuses me is that I didn't think B&H had catchment areas at all, as everything is done based on walking distance to the schools.
jagiwatch
says...
4:58pm Mon 9 Jan 12
Dirk Gently wrote:Dirk Gently- My point was that the whole system seems a little unfair, we were in the "5th catagory" and have lived at the same address (approx a 15 min walk from BMS) for 25 years!
jagiwatch - If you look at the admission statistics you can see how many pupils were admitted last year based on priority criteria like sibling links. You'll probably find it's a tiny number, in proportion to the number of non-priority cases. MzEden - The proposed change is only intended to prevent people who have moved home away from the school from still getting more children in, when what they ought to do is move all their children to the school nearest their new home. I'm not sure how they intend to do it, but the article does state that the sibling link will still apply within the catchment area. What confuses me is that I didn't think B&H had catchment areas at all, as everything is done based on walking distance to the schools.
As I said previously we did not stand a chance.
Dirk Gently
says...
5:36pm Mon 9 Jan 12
One would hope there are enough places in the city as a whole, just not perhaps where they're needed at this time. But as schools can't simply be opened and closed at the drop of a hat, perhaps it is too difficult for the council to keep up with population movements.
Personally I think they should just remove all parent choice from the equation, and simply send everybody to whichever school minimizes the longest journey time for any child. The end result would be a fairer system, and all state schools are equal, aren't they?
george smith
says...
9:21pm Mon 9 Jan 12
jagiwatch
says...
7:08am Tue 10 Jan 12
george smith wrote:Now that's an idea...you should put to the school admissions office!
how about having all year seven pupils in one school, year 8 in another,etc that would give complete equality
Dirk Gently
says...
12:10pm Tue 10 Jan 12
I'm sure many would argue that the childrens' education would suffer, but I'm not sure that's true. I ended up studying for a degree at Oxford University, so I don't think it hampered me at all.
BrightonGasMan
says...
11:49pm Fri 13 Jan 12
jagiwatch says...
11:17am Mon 9 Jan 12
People like myself had no chance of getting the school we wanted as: we have ONE child, No Health or Learning problems, No siblings, Not religious....BUT we do live in the catchment area! that counts for nothing these days.