Councillors will be discussing a proposal to consult on potential changes to school admission arrangements in the city at the Cabinet meeting on Thursday 5 December.
The key proposals for secondary school admissions are to introduce a 20% open admissions criteria and a specific change of catchment areas in the east of the city.
The aim is to further improve equality and fairness across the city’s schools. At present, some catchment areas include only one maintained school while others include more than one. The proposal aims to introduce better equity of choice.
There is also a need for action to reduce the Published Admission Numbers (PANs) in some of the city’s secondary schools to address the reduction in pupil numbers.
If agreed at the Cabinet meeting, the formal consultation on school admission arrangements from September 2026 will run from 6 December until 31 January 2025. This will include a number of events to discuss the proposals with residents.
The proposals have been drawn up following an initial engagement exercise on illustrative models earlier in the autumn and reflect the feedback received.
We received around 2,600 responses through that exercise and heard the opposition to different parts of the models.
The proposal for an ‘open admissions criteria’ is to set 20% of places in each of the city’s secondary schools for pupils who live in the single school catchment areas. There is also a proposal to clarify the Free School Meals criteria introduced earlier this year.
The proposed changes of the catchment areas cover pupils who live in the catchment areas for Longhill High School, Dorothy Stringer School and Varndean School.
Other proposals include:
Councillor Jacob Taylor, Deputy Leader of the Council, said: “Firstly, I’d like to thank everyone who responded to our initial engagement exercise.
“We received a lot of feedback and it has steered our thinking. We’ve listened to the opposition to some of the options and these have now been discounted.
“We really welcome the commitment of so many respondents to the idea of reducing inequalities in the city and raising attainment for all.
“The council must look to tackle differences in our city and support all the city’s children and young people. We know that opinions will differ on how to do that, which is why we opted for an engagement exercise ahead of the formal consultation.
“We believe the 2 key proposals we’re now putting forward can start to address the issue of inequality and fairness, while recognising the geography of the city.
“There is broader work to do on addressing economic and social inequality in Brighton & Hove, and the council will be exploring ways to draw on the expertise and passion of our residents in this area.
“One of those will be to continue exploring federations of schools as a separate but related discussion to safeguard the future of the city’s schools. A few more suggestions emerged through the engagement exercise and we will be continuing to work with schools to explore all these options.
“If it’s agreed to go ahead with the consultation, it’s another opportunity to explore the issues in detail before we introduce any changes. No decisions have been made at this stage.”
