At the Special Full Council meeting on Monday 4 March, Brighton & Hove councillors made the difficult decisions to close St Bartholomew’s Church of England Primary School in central Brighton, and St Peter’s Community Primary and Nursery School in Portslade from 31 August 2024.
Councillor Jacob Taylor, co-chair of the council’s Children, Families and School’s Committee, said: “Firstly, I want to acknowledge what difficult decisions these have been. We’ve heard throughout the process of the passion and love felt for both schools,
“It is with a heavy heart that we find ourselves in this position. But, due to the way the government funds schools and falling pupil numbers, we’re in a crisis situation with the city’s primary schools structurally underfunded.
“We’re not the only council facing this situation, but with 29 out of 48 of the city’s primary schools running budget deficits, we are in the worst position in the country. Reducing the number of the excess places is the right thing to do to secure the long-term future of the city’s schools.
“We recognise this has been a long and painful process for everyone involved in the schools, and we are also sorry for that. There are a number of statutory stages to go through when proposing school closures, and this is the process we have had to follow.
“We will continue to work very closely with headteachers and governing boards of all primary schools in the city to manage the process.
“Our priority now is to continue supporting pupils to make sure the moves to new schools are as positive as possible for them and their families.”
The council’s priority is now on supporting pupils and their families to make the moves to alternative schools as smooth as possible.
A ‘transition board’ has been set up to co-ordinate the work, which includes parent representation through Brighton & Hove’s Parent Carers’ Council, the heads of the 2 schools and a range of lead professionals.
The board is also co-ordinating links with other support services to make sure the individual needs of every child are met.
Additional funding is in place to support the moves as required, which includes funding towards any costs of new uniforms for pupils.
We are contacting primary schools in Brighton & Hove to support the transfers for the children from the 2 closing schools, and working with West Sussex County Council on supporting school moves for St Peter’s pupils and their families in West Sussex.
The transition board is also over-seeing nursery places and are offering to work directly with the parents who have yet to find an alternative place for their child.
Parents and carers of pupils at the 2 schools can apply at any time for move, and we will deal with the applications as a priority. The council’s school admissions team are already supporting children to move schools.
For Brighton & Hove schools, the deadline for all applications for school places for the school year starting in September is Thursday 28 March.
We are also contacting everyone who has applied for a place next year at St Bartholomew’s Church of England Primary School and St Peter’s Community Primary and Nursery School.
For applications to West Sussex schools, parents need to apply directly to West Sussex County Council.
The decisions to close the schools are part of the measures to address the impact of falling pupil numbers in the city. Proposals to reduce the number of pupils joining reception years in September 2025 in 6 other primary schools was agreed in January.
The council has a statutory duty to ensure there are a sufficient number of school places for pupils and that places are planned effectively.
In fulfilling this duty, we have to take account of the fall in pupil numbers across the city and the fact that they are forecast to continue to fall over the coming years. The need to address this and the associated viability of schools, is central to these proposals.
More than a fifth of primary school places in the city are empty. The implication of this for the funding of schools is stark, with a higher proportion of primary schools in Brighton & Hove running budget deficits than other local authority area in the country.
As well as impacting the education schools can provide, supporting large deficits in schools will impact wider council service budgets.
Reducing the number of school places is required to ensure future standards of the wider education offer in the city.
Following these decisions, the total number of reception year primary school places in the city will reduce from 2,610 to 2,550 in the 24/25 academic year, and 2,370 in 25/26.
Forecasts show there’s likely to be 1,970 reception year children requiring a school place in 2025, 1953 in 2026 and 1,787 in 2027.
