Two more city schools are to merge under reorganisation plans.

Informal consultations have been held over the future of St Luke's Junior and St Luke's Infant schools, both housed in the same building in St Luke's Terrace, in the Queen's Park area of Brighton.

Brighton and Hove City Council has proposed to merge the two as a single primary school with one headteacher.

The plan has been revealed in the same week that the council has rubber-stamped another merger between West Blatchington Infant and West Blatchington Junior schools in Hangleton Way, Hove.

The two will start operating as a single primary from September and will later move into new purpose-built buildings.

In March the council signalled its intention to create all-through primary schools wherever possible in the city, signalling the likelihood of amalgamations between 12 sets of junior and infant schools.

It said evidence suggested that children did better when their education was not disrupted by transferring from one school to another.

Critics have argued the mergers are a way of saving money by removing the cost of one headteacher's wage.

Green Party councillor Ben Duncan, who represents the Queen's Park area, said: "St Luke's Schools are both performing very well, and I'd be very concerned that any proposals to merge them were aimed at saving management and administration costs rather than improving pupils' education.

"There's plenty of evidence that smaller schools perform better than larger ones, and that any management changes have a negative impact on results, at least in the short term."

St Luke's Infant School has 246 pupils and was rated outstanding by Ofsted last June. The 335-pupil junior school was ranked good in the same month.

Previous merger attempts in the city have met fierce opposition.

In 2002, the council backed out of plans to merge Hertford Junior and Hertford Infant schools after a public outcry.

A schools adjudicator also ruled that Balfour Junior and Balfour Infant schools should not be merged because they were both performing too well.

In the same year, headteacher Richard Sutton-Smith quit his job because of the difficulties of working between the sites of newly amalgamated Goldstone Junior and Knoll Infant. The moves at both West Blatchington and St Luke's have been prompted by the retirement of one of the headteachers.

The council will launch a formal consultation period on St Luke's, involving staff, governors, parents, pupils and other concerned parties, before serving a statutory notice.

That process is likely to start in July. If it goes ahead the new primary school would open in September next year.

Councillor Vanessa Brown, cabinet member for children and young people, said: "It's being considered at the moment because the infants' head is leaving. We will go through all the correct procedures but it's very early days at the moment."

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