Hove secondary school catchment area to decrease in size

Brighton and Hove City Council is proposing two changes to its secondary school catchment areas which would decrease the size of the under-strain Hove catchment area.

One of the proposals is to move the boundary between the catchment areas of Dorothy Stringer/Varndean and Blatchington Mill/Hove Park from the London to Brighton railway line to Dyke Road.

This would take the families between these landmarks out of the Hove catchment area, which is facing an ever-growing demand for places.

Dorothy Stringer has also announced it is increasing its admissions number from 311 to 330, while Brighton and Hove City Council report parents in the area in question have complained at the difficulties they face in reaching the Hove schools.

The second proposal is to move the southern boundary of the Portslade Community Academy catchment area so that the whole of the BN41 postcode is included. This would again reduce the Blatchington Mill/Hove Park catchment area.

The council will also be consulting on the possibility of changing how the distance from a child’s home to school is measured for primary school applications. Currently the perceived shortage distance by using the road network is used, but the ‘way the crow flies’ could be used, although the council concedes this would pose problems where routes are blocked by fields and railway lines.

Council leader Bill Randall said: “I believe the changes we’re proposing to the secondary admissions system are reasonable and would make the system work better. The primary home to school distance proposal is more complex, and I’ll be interested to see what the feedback is like on it from local people.”

Find out more here.

Related Posts:

• Portslade school’s catchment area is enlarged

Posted by Joseph Lewis on January 11, 2012. Filed under Brighton and Hove News,Hove,Latest News,Schools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry