Radical changes to secondary school admission policies proposed by a Labour-run council aiming to close the rich-poor gap are threatening to stoke a class war.
Brighton and Hove City Council is suggesting that local authority schools should give priority to children on free school meals over pupils from the catchment area.
The local authority in East Sussex plans to achieve this by reducing the intake at three schools, bring in an open admission policy and change catchment areas.
Councillors want to give more priority to children receiving free school meals as they try to reduce the attainment gap between the richest and poorest pupils.
But critics claim the ‘social engineering’ experiment is targeting the city’s middle-class parents who wanted their children to attend schools within walking distance.
Parents have held huge protests outside council offices amid fears the changes could result in up to 250 pupils being forced to travel long distances to get to school.
They believe friendship groups will be split up and pupils will unnecessarily have to take two buses to get to a school in another community far away from their home.
The council wants to reduce admission numbers at oversubscribed schools to increase uptake at others – as well as changing catchment areas for Longhill, Varndean and Dorothy Stringer schools, which it says will give parents more choice.
More than 3,000 responses to an eight-week consultation have now been received and the proposals could be brought in about 18 months’ time by September 2026.
Parents protest outside Hove Town Hall on January 30 about proposed changes in Brighton
The catchment areas for secondary schools in Brighton and Hove area are shown in this map
But parent Sally Bunkham told BBC News: ‘These plans would mean friendship groups would be completely broken up across the city, children would be sent in different directions away from their community, spending loads of time commuting.
‘It’s not increasing choice, it’s slightly increasing chance for some families.’
Another parent, Anna Mouser, said: ‘Only one in four kids who don’t have an older sibling are going to be going to their local school.
‘We’re talking about over an hour’s travel each way for children who are 11. It won’t actually fix anything, it’s moving kids around like numbers on a spreadsheet.’
The heads and governors of all six council-run secondary schools in the city have written a joint letter to the authority over ‘significant unintended consequences for pupils across the city’ that would be caused by the policy.
They added: ‘We oppose the proposed addition of an ‘open admissions’ priority … for September 2026 which would allocate a proportion of school places to pupils living outside the two central catchment areas.’
A mother of two autistic daughters, Sally Bunkham, told The Telegraph that the ‘council is using children as a social experiment’.
And parent Tony Boland also told the newspaper: ‘There’s a misconception within the council that if you live in a specific area in Brighton, you’re a multimillionaire. It is completely untrue.
‘We’re not wealthy by any standards. Our community is a broad church and we have bled to live here. We bought a house here 10 years ago as we thought it would be a suitable area for our kids.
‘I don’t know what we’re going to do. We can’t afford to move or send our kids to a private school, so we’re just going to suck it up.’
Meanwhile Sarah Taylor, who was among the parents protesting outside Hove Town Hall, told the Argus: ‘It’s made it very difficult for parents to make an informed decision.
‘All the consultation seems to do is shift the burden of previous council failures from one group of children to another.
Parents are unhappy about children being forced to travel long distances to school in Brighton
‘The positive that’s come out of this is a lot of experts, educators, governors and SEN (special educational needs) professionals have come out of the woodwork with a huge amount of creative suggestions which could provide solutions in both the short and long term.’
The plans have also been criticised by education expert Sir Jon Coles, chief executive of United Learning, which runs more than 100 schools.
He tweeted: ‘Truly extraordinary proposals from Brighton and Hove City Council based on some very shaky pseudo-academic evidence.
‘Surely no-one wants a return to council-led social engineering by busing? Maybe improving the weak schools would be a better strategy.’
But it comes amid Brighton and Hove’s falling birth rate which is now one of the country’s lowest at 0.98.
Two primary schools closed last year and it is feared more could follow due to plummeting pupil numbers – with the council hoping that shifting children to low-intake schools could reduce the threat of more cuts.
More parents in Brighton are taking their children on holiday during school terms (file image)
And the plan is being supported by local campaign group Class Divide, whose founder Curtis James said: ‘Years from now, when we look back at this moment, what will we tell our children about the choices we made?
‘Will we say we were brave enough to create real change? Will we say we built a city where every child, regardless of their postcode or family income, had a fair chance at a great education?
‘These proposals aren’t perfect – no change ever is. But they offer a real chance to build the kind of education system our city deserves; one that works for everyone, not just the privileged few.’
Councillor Jacob Taylor, deputy leader of Brighton and Hove City Council, told MailOnline: ‘Like many cities in the country, Brighton and Hove is facing falling pupil numbers. We also inherited a system which means some areas of the city have a choice of at least two catchment schools, while other areas have only one catchment school.
‘Our consultation proposed a small percentage of open admissions which would mean that every family in the city had at least some chance of a choice of secondary school for their children.
‘We are ambitious for children’s education in Brighton & Hove and we are committed for fairness for all.
‘More than 3,500 people have shared their views with us and I would like to thank everyone who has done so. That feedback will now be considered before a final decision is made.’
It comes after new Department for Education figures revealed more parents in the city are risking fines to take their children on holiday during school terms.
Brighton and Hove saw a 27 per cent increase in fines from 2,019 in 2022/23 to 2,565 in 2023/24. The minimum fine increased last August from £60 to £80 per parent.
