Brighton School Calls For Support Against Admission Cuts

A head teacher and governors are urging parents to make their voices heard in a public consultation about a proposal to cut the admission number at a popular Brighton school.

St Luke’s Primary School head Simon Wattam and the co-chairs of governors Barry Ling and Justine Stephens have written to parents at the school, which is in Queen’s Park Rise.

Their letter, sent on Friday, November 10, urged parents to take part in public meetings and respond to Brighton and Hove City Council’s public consultation.

The council has proposed reducing the reception intake at St Luke’s from three forms of entry, a total of 90 pupils in a year group, to 60 pupils, or two forms, from September 2025.

Nine schools face having their intake numbers cut as a quarter of reception class places are predicted to be unfilled by September 2025.

Fewer than 2,000 four to five-year-olds are expected to start school that year, leaving an excess of 651 places across Brighton and Hove, which would affect school funding.

In their letter, the St Luke’s head and governors said that losing a class would result in £140,000 in lost funding, wiping almost £1 million from the school’s budget over seven years.

Parents were told that the lost funding would affect music, PE, pastoral care and literacy support.

Schools receive a mix of basic funding and £4,655 a pupil, meaning smaller schools must manage many of the same costs with a smaller budget.

The letter said:

“We would have a third less children to care for and educate but this would not mean that the cost of running the school would also be reduced by one-third.

“The cost of maintaining the building will stay the same but much of the school’s existing activities and provision would have to be reduced or cut as a result.

“The school building is currently undergoing a projected £1.4 million improvement programme – the biggest single planned maintenance investment Brighton and Hove City Council has ever undertaken.

“There is clearly a lack of coherent strategy because this substantial investment in the school’s infrastructure will be significantly underused if there is a reduction of children in the school.”

St Luke’s is currently three children below its published admission number (PAN) of 90.

The school said that, by 2026, the area of Hanover that it serves – including Carlton Hill Primary School’s catchment area – would be short by 10 children, not the proposed 30 to be cut from the intake.

Apart from the current school year, when 87 out of a possible 90 pupils started in reception, for the previous five years the school has been oversubscribed.

More than 110 families were naming St Luke’s as their first choice primary school, leaving many disappointed.

In 2018 and 2021, more than 130 families put St Luke’s as their first choice school.

The letter said:

“The council has repeatedly stated to us over the years that, by cutting our reception intake from 90 to 60 we could provide a ‘ripple effect’ to help sustain other schools, presumably – though not stated – towards/in the Lewes Road vicinity.

“Meaning that children from our community would have to attend schools further away.

“As a result, parents may be more likely to drive their children to school, older children may not be able to walk home alone safely and children’s school friends may not be from the same area.”

A public meeting organised by St Luke’s Residents’ Association is due to take place on Monday, December 11 at St Luke’s Church Hall, in Queen’s Park Road.

An online meeting with council representatives is expected to take place on Monday, December 4.

If the council does cut admissions to St Luke’s then the head teacher and governors are willing to take their case to the schools adjudicator.

The public consultation is open on Brighton and Hove City Council’s website until Friday, December 22.