Brighton votes to allocate secondary school places by lottery - good or bad?

[TheDullWitch]

Would you put your child's future down to pure chance because it's a fairer system?
here

too right!

fucking excellent in the highest order. bravo brighton

I honestly think it should be done by distance to school perhaps limited to those withing a mile (ie easy walking distance) then every one else by lottery? I don't know the area but here the traffic is a nightmare and if people had to go to their nearest school I think the impact on traffice decongestion would be significant. At the end of the day those with money will move nearer and push up house prices but money is always an advantage in our society (I speak as one who would not be able to move!)

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umm, I don't know what I think tbh. In theory it sounds good, but I think I think we are still governed by catchment areas - I live in one with 2 good secondary schools and people with money will move into this area I expect.

I think the problem is that alot of people who lived in an area which was previously in a good catchment area have now found that they are in a not so good area.

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I think that there is an area (full of ex-londoners) that was previously in a good catchment area and they are now in a not so good one. They are up in arms about it all not surprisingly. But the situation before wasn't ideal either - 2 or 3 good secondary schools and a good catholic one, and the rest people tried to avoid.

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if people with more money but not the money - or whatever reason to send them private - start kicking up shit about a piss poor school that their children have to go to becuase of lottery it can only improve things.

same with house prices. houses advertised by catchment area fgs! maybe jig that up a bit - if no one can predict where their kid is going.

no its not representative of society but its mighty liberal lefty and although not totally progressive in every way -certainly more so than most councils, and certainly willing to try - from a person who works with the council - rahter than a person who lives under the rules of it!

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and i am sure many local authorities will be watching closely and if successful follow their lead

i dunno, as an oldhamer i think its all posh apart from the two big estates - even then relatively speaking - although relatively isn't helpful.

i work in hove so should get some great opinions rom collegues over the coming weeks

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I live in Brighton and we are in a catchment area for good schools which are all going to be oversubscribed because the council have miscalculated the pupil numbers. It is likely that only 1 in 6 children in my area will get into the (now enlarged) catchment area and will have to travel to school into another catchment area. The heads of the secondary school in my catchment have both said they will be unable to cope with the anticipated numbers of pupils the plan predicts.

The problems in Brighton have been caused by the closing of a secondary school a few years ago. This new system does nothing to address the fact that there are not enough school places here and a whole area of Brighton has no local secondary school. We need a new one.

It has all been very badly handled here and the council have pushed it through against huge opposition on the casting vote of the Chair.

It sounds great in theory. But bussing the kids around will be a nightmare and councils won't like funding it. And anyone who thinks that sending middle-class, clever kids to shit schools will raise standards is living in cloud cuckoo land - as a middle class, clever kid sent to a shit school I can tell you that all that happens is you get the shit kicked out of you until you learn to assimilate i.e drop out.

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Our loacl comp has 2,500 pupils.

But really I am exhausted with the kicking up a fuss to make the school better thing. What if you're working and don't have time, why should you have to be up the school, lobbying and hastling for your kids to get a decent education? I know it's the right thing to do. But so much of what happens in school is up the head anyway. And the individual teachers.

I m not sure sending middle class kids to bad schools improves the schools. It improves the results, because they have more motivated, home-supported kids getting good SATs. It might mean a class has fewer disruptive kids. But I'm not sure middle class children and parents can actually make that much difference. Unless they get really militant and put in huge amount of work (as Fiona Millar did up in N London)

A kid going to a good school means you can relax and let the school do it s job.

puddle this all sounds too familiar to what me go thru. There are proposals to shut a very undersubcribed infant school which TBH I supported until half way thru the (FAKE?) consultation process when central govenrment overturned local government decision and said yes 350 3-4 bedroomed homes could be built on farmland according to LEA this will only increase demand for school place by 3-4 per year???????????????????????????

So if they shut the school within 5 years I think there will be insufficent places in all the localish areas - they are completely STUPID, they have also given for lots of 2 bedroomed flats to be built but apparantly that won't increase the number of children in the area!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

maybe singularly a MC student wont make a difference. but with a mix it may change things.

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so the argument is that MC kids should be allowed - becuase of money - being able to move house into a catchment area - afford {literally} a good education whilst the poorest in society have to put up with a piss poor one.

But only if parents have the time and energy, and the balls to stand up to other parents who may be bullying (happened at a school nr me - parents too scared to take on the other parents of the kids who were causing trouble) You then need to find better teachers and heads to sort out the mess. The reality is that more MC kids will go private, and those from less privileged backgrounds will be stuck where they ever have been - struggling in the face of a system that values image over reality.

i am not sure
here it is full of ex londonders and locals get pushed out and therefore end up at crapola schools

might be good

you would brick yourself!