Effects of the proposals

What is the problem that this consultation is really addressing?

We think that, at bottom, the problem is that favoured secondary schools in the city – especially Dorothy Stringer and Blatchington Mill – are oversubscribed. So, however places are allocated to these schools, there is bound to be a group of very discontented parents. In other words, there is a fixed burden of discontent. Pressure for change has come from the group that is currently discontented.

What would be the effects of the main proposals – those concerning 'distance measurement'

1. Shifting the problem
   The Consultation Document claims that its proposals 'redress [the] balance' between children who can choose between 'two or three' nearby schools and those 'who are not close to any schools and might not get a place even at their nearest school', while making the 'minimum of changes'. In fact, the proposals cannot 'redress' any 'balance'. They can only shift the burden of discontent. Discontent currently felt by parents in Queens Park and Elm Grove would be shifted to parents in Preston Park, Withdean, and Hollingbury – there would be a similar shift from Goldsmid to Hangleton and Westbourne and Wish. Catchment areas for favoured schools other than Stringer and Blatchington Mill would shrink. One probable result is that many children living in Preston Park and Withdean would find themselves unable to get places in ANY of the four or five nearest secondary schools. Why should parents living in areas such as Queens Park benefit to the detriment of those elsewhere?
   
   
2. Links between schools and communities
   The proposals would destroy such links for Stringer and seriously weaken them for Blatchington Mill. The number of children walking to school would be substantially reduced. For example, parents of children living at the gates of Stringer would be fighting congestion (caused by cars arriving from Queens Park) in order to try to ferry their children across Brighton.
   
   
3. Travelling distance
   Measuring distances to imaginary schools on The Level and at the Cricket Ground, rather than to real schools, must raise average travelling distance to school. This flies in the face of City policy on green transport.
   
   
4. Environment and safety
   More children being driven longer distances to school would raise congestion and pollution in the city and reduce children's safety.
   
   
5. Importance of meeting parental preference
   It is the popularity and unpopularity of schools that determines how many parents don't get their child into the school they would really like them to attend. So changing who gets rationed out of the popular schools, as these proposals do, cannot change the overall number of discontented parents – it can only change who they are.