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

I don't understanbd where people are moving to tho noddy. It's not clear to me who will go into the lottery when loads of kids will be in the atchment - will all the kids who have applied go in? If so what's the point of moving closer to the school?

It's both those and more unquiet.

I know you're hoping it's all about snobbery and that middle class people will get some kind of come-uppance but it's not so simple. It's about the fact that there aren't enough places as it is, and more and more homes are being built here so the situation is set to get worse.

People are having to face a lottery, literally a lottery, over which school their kids will go to. Many friends are being split up and yes there will be long journeys to schools we haven't chosen for many of us.

What's wrong with moving into an area because it has a good school nearby? I would have thought most parents take into account what schools are nearby when buying houses.

What people can't bear is the uncertainty. It is a year of worry, if not years. People hate not being able to control their own fate by their actions. Parents have had certainty turned into chance.

(To allow other people to be given a chance)

Most people I know want their kids to go to a local school and to be able to walk to school with their friends. As people have said on the thread there is a really mixed intake at these secondary schools already - the issue is that there are not enough school places.

For the children the biggest stress is going to school without their friend whom they've spent years forging relationships. It shows a total disregard for their society they have created.

spidermama, bizarrely, I am in the catchment area for Noddy's school, but you aren't. Seems very strange. there will be a huge influx to P Park and house prices will just shoot up even more. I can't see it achieving anything other than chaos and stress for the children.

spidermama - I'm not hoping that, I'm just after clarification! I'm "middle-class" myself (help) AND we moved from a bad catchment into a good one a while back......

I do think there is a lot of nonsense spouted by people who claim to support the state system but only do so once they are comfortably bedded into a decent catchment.

But nobody should be faced with a lottery. The issue at heart, clearly, is the fact that some schools in an allegedly "comprehensive" system are better - or perceived as better - than others.

Well patcham used to be in the catchment for stringer but now isn't but hollindean estate is so people are selling up in patcham and moving to hollingdean(according to estate agents)Houses in Patcham aren't shifting.We have 5 viewings between now and friday and they seem to be school seekers!

Havent read everything here, but in Brighton are they saying that all its a lottery if the school is oversubsribed with children in catchment or just a general lottery over the whole area of several schools.

Sorry Unquiet Dad. No slight intended.

Pollyanna I didn't think you were in the Stringer catchement because it goes down the railway line doesn't it?

Actually if I'm honest, and if I think back to the situation I was in as regards schools when I lived in Brixton, we're very lucky with all the Brighton secondaries. It's a great city and that's reflected in its schools IME.

Can anyone answer my 14.32 post question?
I don't understand how it works.

"What's wrong with moving into an area because it has a good school nearby? I would have thought most parents take into account what schools are nearby when buying houses."

some people can't buy houses.

puddle the bbc link at the beginning explains it.

some people also rent in good catchments - it's a well-known dodge.

From what I can see it is those within the catchment who don't get in who will enter a lottery but I still don't know who decides who they are.Many people move in to this area and rent in order to get a place.The estate which is now in the catchment was a reasonably priced place to buy a house but is going to rocket now.I don't think it will result in a mix of people in the better schools as those with money will buy property within the catchment area and those newly in the catchment in less affluent areas will be tempted by the increase in prices and will sell up and move to cheaper areas and worse schools again.There are roads which people wouldn't have dreamt of living in which will now be desirable and so residents will be tempted to sell

from the link it sounds like - if there are TWO schools within one catchment area and one is oversubscribed there willbe a lottery to decide who goes to the oversubscribed one.

this would suggest tht kids wouldnt have to go miles and miles accross the city for another school - however the actual geography may well be different. i dont know how large a catchment is.

I guess my question is - what happens if both schools are oversubscribed (which is said to be liklely as there are issues over the calculations and projections the council have made re: pupil numbers). Does that mean that all the children go into a lottery for those two schools? Or for all secondary schools in brighton?

dunno.

would seem fairer on the surface.

I think this is very good news for those council tenants living in certain areas of Brighton.

The secondary school system is unfair in almost all areas of the country but in Brighton it was so much worse because there was no decent secondary for the area in which many of the council estates fall.

Very, very good news for those parents, I would say. At last their children have a chance of going to a decent school

well I live in Brighton and the new catchments are great for us. Before this, we had no chance of our kids going to a school we wanted , because it was calculated on distance to school and we are not near enough to any school. The house prices are too high for us near the most popular schools. This will even it out for people like us. However, from what I understand the popular schools (keen to keep pupils from the most affluent areas) are threatening to switch to foundation status anyway, which I think means they will have more choice as to who goes to the schools anyway. So this could all be a storm in a tea-cup.

Although the vote has gone our way, I can see why other parents are annoyed as a labour councillor was kicked off the committee that decided on the new scheme, as she had threatened to go against the change!

This does nothing to improve the infrastruction .think it is a poorly thought out short term solution. I would like to think that it will give those smug parents who think i'm all right jack a kick up the bum and force them into fighting to improve schools rather than just expecting to get into a safe school but I am sure many will find ways of affording private education. so many schools will still be left to fail.

eduction infrastructure even!

I agree about the smug parents! lol

This can only help all schools improve, I think. One of the major features of 'good' schools is parental interest and involvement and this, typically though not exclusively, is a feature of MC parenting.

I actually think it is a very bold and brave move by Brighton & Hove.

They have realised what they have created. Varndean/Stringer are oversubscribed and the MC parents are literally falling over themselves to get their little darlings places there. They are buying and renting places in the immediate areas just to get in there.

Meanwhile, the council tenants (and some homowners/private renters) are left with no choice and no hope, and all lumped together into failing schools.

Brighton & Hove has a massive class divide. It is so obvious, more so than in a lot of other places, as their council estates are, especially Whitehawk, are in out of the way areas, and are effectively like ghettos with no way out and no hope of a decent education for the children living there.