'˜We don't need a new school,' say city's headteachers

This comes as a new secondary free school run by the University of Brighton is planned, and set to open in September 2019.

But the headteachers of Brighton and Hove secondary schools said there are enough places in the city, and that a new school would be ‘detrimental’ to existing schools.

Not only that, they said, but in a time of ‘financial pressure’ for schools, a new school would spread education funding even more thinly.

Rob Reed, executive principal of Aldridge Education South East - which runs two academies in the city - spoke to behalf of the secondary school heads, and said that the last secondary school intake saw 200 spare places in the city.

Although there is set to be a pupil increase in 2019, he said projections now show that ‘Brighton and Hove will continue to have spare secondary school places for the foreseeable future’.

There are some oversubscribed schools in the city, such as Dorothy Stringer and Varndean, but the council is currently consulting on temporary changes to catchment areas to address this.

The open letter urging the was signed by a group of headteachers and principals in Brighton and Hove, including: Richard Bradford, Dorothy Stringer School; Dylan Davies, Brighton Aldridge Community Academy William Deighan, Varndean School; Ashley Harrold, Blatchington Mill School; James Kilmartin, Cardinal Newman Catholic School; John McKee, Patcham High School; Sarah Price, King’s School; Rob Reed, Aldridge Education South East; Jim Roberts, Hove Park School; Katie Scott, Portslade Aldridge Community Academy; and Kate Williams, Longhill High School.

It said: “There has been much discussion in recent months regarding secondary school places across Brighton and Hove. It is vitally important for the quality of education across the city that we have clarity about the issues.

“In the youngest year group across the city’s secondary schools (Year 7) there are over 200 spare school places. In other words it is very clear that the issue is that currently there are too many secondary places available. With schools funded by government on a per-student basis, this means that local schools have less income to meet their fixed costs, putting further pressure on already strained budgets, which impacts directly on our students.

“The national Local Government Association has issued statistics showing that Brighton and Hove will continue to have spare secondary school places for the foreseeable future. These statistics place Brighton in the top third nationally for local authorities with more secondary school places than secondary aged children. Parallel statistics commissioned by Brighton and Hove City Council suggest demand for school places will reach a peak in 2019 and then decline. Both sets of statistics tell us that we do not need to increase secondary school capacity in our city.

“Secondary education in our city is a local success story that we can collectively celebrate. The quality of secondary education across the city has improved tremendously and we are blessed with many excellent schools. Standards across the city are very high. Parents and carers can be reassured that wherever their children go to secondary school in our city, they will get a great education.

“At a time when sadly so many schools have been compelled by financial pressures to reduce staffing, money would be better used strengthening our existing secondary schools rather than used to build a new school that the city doesn’t need. We call on local authority colleagues and local elected representatives to prioritise the needs of all young people in schools across Brighton and avoid wasting money desperately needed by our current schools and their students.”

A Brighton and Hove City Council spokesperson said: “We have a legal duty to provide enough school places for every child in the city who wants one.

“With regards to delivering these places, our focus has to be primarily on the numbers of year 7 students entering the secondary phase.

“Our recent report on secondary school places makes it clear that in the coming years there will be more year 7 pupils than spaces available for them across the city.

“Whilst there will be a small amount of surplus places in 2019 and 2020 there will be insufficient places in 2021 and 2022, without additional places being created.

“This is before additional children expected to move into the city as a result of new housing have been considered. The city is expected to have 13,000 new homes by 2030.

“Parental preference will also be severely restricted without additional places being available in the city, and it is well known that there are already significant pressures on school places in certain catchment areas.

“We are aware that many of our schools are running at capacity and unable to expand further.

“We therefore remain strongly of the view that a new secondary school is needed in the eastern central area of the city.”