Brighton City Council unveils new proposals to tackle falling primary school places

The plans, unveiled by the Children, Families & Schools Committee today (January 12), recommend moving ahead with proposals to close two single form entry primary schools, and reduce the number of pupils joining six other primary schools in the area.

If agreed, the plans would mean issuing statutory notices for the closure of St Bartholomew’s Church of England Primary School in central Brighton, and St Peter’s Community Primary and Nursery School in Portslade – the primary schools with the lowest number of pupils in the city – at the end of the current school year.

The recommendations come after a public consultation which ran between November 7 and December 22 last year, which included public meetings with staff, families and both school communities.

The proposals are designed to address the fall in student numbers, but a council spokesperson has acknowledged that the majority of respondents disagreed with the proposals to the school closures and the reduction in primary school places.

More than a fifth of primary school places in the city are currently empty, the council has said, which has a negative impact on the resources available to schools and pupils. A spokesperson made clear that the council believes urgent action is required in order to safeguard the quality of education for children across the city.

The council is also proposing to reduce admission numbers at the following Brighton-area primary schools from 2025:

• Brunswick Primary School (reduced by 30 places)
• Goldstone Primary School (30 places)
• Patcham Infant School (30 places)
• Saltdean Primary School (30 places)
• Stanford Infant School (30 places)
• St Luke’s Primary School (30 places)

Proposals to reduce places at Queen’s Park Primary School by 30 places, and Rudyard Kipling Primary School and Woodingdean Primary School by 15 places have been withdrawn, a council spokesperson said.

In total, this would mean reception year primary school places in the city reducing from the current 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.

The consultation also included a proposal to give pupils eligible for free school meals a new priority for admission to the city’s community secondary schools.

This proposal received broad support and the recommendation is to go ahead with the change for future secondary school admission arrangements.

Councillor Jacob Taylor, co-chair of the council’s Children, Families and School’s Committee, said: “We understand these recommendations will be upsetting for our school communities. We fully appreciate the valuable role the schools play in their local areas – that has come across very strongly in the feedback to the consultations.

“But with more than a fifth of primary school places empty in the city, it’s an issue we urgently need to address.

“The way the government school funding formula works means that empty places have a serious impact on the resources and teaching available to pupils.

“This means more and more of our schools are finding themselves in extreme financial difficulty, and without the resources needed to provide the support to children they would want to provide.

“Reducing the number of school places is the right thing to do to secure the long-term future of our schools and ensure we can maintain high standards of education across the city.

“We are committed to keeping as many schools open and viable as possible to minimise disruption to pupils and families.

"If the closures do go ahead, we will work very closely with headteachers and governing boards to manage the process. We will be put extra measures in place to make sure support is available to keep the impact on children, their families and the staff to an absolute minimum.”

If the recommendation to proceed with the closures of St Bartholomew’s Church of England Primary School and St Peter’s Community Primary and Nursery School is agreed by councillors at the committee, the next step of the process is to publish ‘Statutory Notices’.

The planned timetable is to publish the notices on Tuesday 23 January 2024. This is followed by a 4 week representation period where interested parties can make further comments on the proposals.

The final recommendations will then go back to the Children, Families & Schools Committee on 29 February 2024 for further consideration, before the final decision on the proposals is made by councillors at a Special Full Council on 4 March 2024.

Decisions on the school admission arrangements for 2025/26 will be made at the meeting of the Children Families and Schools Committee on 22 January 2024.

This will include the proposed PAN reductions and proposed new admission criteria for community secondary schools, which would give priority to pupils in receipt of free school meals.