West Sussex school admissions

Children in Shoreham and all over the county and country received their secondary school offer on March 1st.

28 children from one Shoreham primary school alone and over 43 from the Shoreham area did NOT get any of their 3 preferred choices and were left completely devastated to have been offered a school outside of catchment and community, over 6 miles away in Worthing, which they knew nothing about. When the current year 6 cohort started school in

September 2016, the Shoreham primaries were already over capacity. See table below from WSCC Planning School Places doc - published March 2023:

WSCC have known for 7 years that the year 6 children currently in the primary system within Adur outnumbered secondary school places available and have been making written commitments to do something about it for many years.

'planned expansion of Sir Robert Woodard Academy from 240 to 300 pupils per year of entry from 2024 is being progressed by WSCC'.

This year they led everyone to believe that permanent expansion of SRWA would take place in time for the 2023/24 school year. This has not happened despite the Adur secondary schools already being well over capacity since 2019 – see table below.

You can see in the graph below why parents and children from one Shoreham school expected to get into one of their catchment secondary school choices – historically they always have. It is unprecedented that this year, 28 children are being sent to a school in Worthing outside of Adur.

So, is this a failure of planning by WSCC or a deliberate strategy?

Parents Jade Sowa and Amy Boyse, together with Al Read (FAST founder member) organised a public meeting on March 14th, which was attended by over 200 people - the largest event of its kind in recent memory. However, the decision by the Chief Executive of WSCC, Becky Shaw, to order her officers not to attend the meeting was very baffling. People now understand that this is an Adur/Shoreham district problem, not just an issue affecting one of two schools, or postcodes. This has nothing to do with what school your child goes to. It is entirely down to where you live.

Headteachers spoke at the public meeting, sharing the concerns they have around safety, well-being and physical space issues, with having so many kids being packed in so tightly. And that the solution isn't as straightforward as adding another Portakabin or two. Unless something changes, there will be fewer places next year than this year and there will be more pupils needing places. We still have not got the answers we need. Appeals take place in mid-June, so families have been left in limbo until then. It is having a huge impact on the children’s mental health and anxiety levels.

In the meantime, we have organised a protest on:

• May 13th in

• Shoreham, 10am.

• Meeting Point: Adur Rec Car park

• Finish: War memorial St Mary’s

FAST – Future of Adur Schools.

A group set up in 2016 with the goal being to see safe and appropriate long-term planning of school place provision in Adur, ensuring all operate at a safe and good level of capacity - including the opening of new schools.