BHSAG campaign news
On this page we will try to keep you up-to-date with how the campaign is progressing.
21 Feb 06
CF&S Committee emergency meeting to reconsider its decision of 23 Jan. They voted 9-1 to retain the current system for 2007 and to continue modelling for 2008.
07 Feb 06
Education Scrutiny Committee voted to send the issue of Secondary School Admissions back to the CF&S Committee to look at their decision again. The vote was 7-7 and the Chairman Vince Meegan had the casting vote which he used to send the issue back.
23 Jan 06
Children, Families and Schools Committee met to consider recommendations and make a decision in principle. The CFS agreed recommendations 2.1 to 2.7 of the Admissions Committee Report, that is:
2.1 To note the outcomes of the recent consultation over seen by the cross-party Working Group
2.2 To agree the recommendation from the Working Group that the sibling link criterion be retained.
2.3 In light of the findings, to carry out further work and modelling of the implications of the recently published Schools White Paper and of alternative models, for possible implementation in 2008.
2.4 For the Working Group to take this forward, and to be chaired in future by the Assistant Director, Schools. To review the structure of the Parent Stakeholder group, with a view to ensuring full and appropriate membership from across the City, and for the group to continue to meet throughout 2006/07, in order to help inform and comment on the working group's proposals.
2.5 To consider possible amendments to the Secondary Admissions application form for 2006/07 to include questions related to parents/carers choice of Secondary School, so that the responses to these questions can be used to inform the working group of parental/carers views.
2.6 To ask the working group to formulate proposals regarding a future City Secondary Admissions process for agreement by CFS committee by January 2007 derived from their considerations and the further deliberations of the Parent Stakeholder Group.
2.7 For 2007, to decide whether to continue with the present system, or whether to revert to the 2004 system, with additional external professional moderation to offset concerns regarding officer discretion.
[You can download a copy of the full report - Word file, 104KB].
19 Jan 06
Deputation presented to full Council meeting at the Council Chamber, Brighton Town Hall.
13 Jan 06
Working Group gave recommendation to
Children, Families and Schools Committee.
20 Dec 05
Admissions Working Group meeting to look again at its proposals in the light of the consultation
14 Dec 05
Parents Stakeholder Group met with Bryan Slater and Gil Sweetenham. Apparently, consultation responses were as follows:
Type of preference system
keep 1st preferences 73%
equal preferences 27%
Sibling link
over 95% agreed that sibling link should be kept
Zoning or distance measurement
keep current system 61%
single node for Stringer and dual node for Blatchington Mill 26%
dual node for Stringer and Blatchington Mill 9%
fixed priority areas for each school 4%
2 Dec 05
Letter to parents from Cllr Pat Hawkes, Chair of Children, Families and Schools stating they had received over 3,000 responses to the Consultation Document and emphasising that no decision has yet been made.
30 November 05
Period of consultation ends.
28 November 05
Open meeting at Dorothy Stringer. Gil Sweetenham stated that change will only be contemplated if it can be shown that it will raise the percentage of children allocated to their first preference school.
November 05
The Consultation Document was distributed to parents in book bags (as late as 16 November at Blatchington Mill and later at Stringer).
End summer term 05
Council distributed poster to all primary schools explaining the information gathering/consultation process. This was received after the end of term at the schools we know of and therefore not distributed to parents at all.