Brighton and Hove school expansions agreed (From The Argus)

Brighton and Hove school expansions agreed

4:10pm Sunday 22nd January 2012 in News

Town hall bosses will push ahead with plans to expand two primary schools despite governors and parents opposing the move.

Brighton and Hove City Council forced through the move to add an extra form, saying there was a need to tackle the shortage of primary school places in the city.

This is despite those in charge at Westdene Primary School in Bankside, Brighton, and Goldstone Primary School in Laburnum Avenue, Hove, registering concerns about the decision.

They claimed that it would lead to extra classroom disruption, make communal areas overcrowded and create traffic and safety concerns.

However, these points were all considered but rejected when the idea was approved at a meeting of the cabinet.

The Office of the Schools Adjudicator will now be informed of the change, which will come into effect in September and also see the expansion of Queen’s Park Primary in Brighton and the Connaught Road site of West Hove Infant School.

The council also approved turn- ing three schools – St Peter’s Community Infant, Portslade Infant and St Nicolas Church of England Junior, all in Portslade – into “all-through” primaries from September 2013.

The council also agreed to look further into creating a junior school at Hove Police Station.

However, with the Green administration being ideologically against academies and free schools, bosses admitted this would be a satellite school run by an existing school.