Council comes clean over new school
March 1, 2002 12:00 AM
At an Education Scrutiny Commission meeting, Bristol Councillor Dennis Brown has finally forced Bristol Labour Councillors to come clean over what they meant by a school having a 'balanced social mix'. The Cabinet had made this a "key review objective" for the delivery of a new secondary school serving Bristol West. Local parents and Lib Dem Councillors have been campaigning for such a school for many years.
Cllr Dennis Brown (Henleaze Ward) says : "Labour have now come clean and explained that 'a balanced social mix' means a school having the Bristol average percentage of pupils entitled to free school meals."
"To achieve this in any school sounds dangerously like social engineering at the expense of parental preference. When schools like Lawrence Weston or Lockleaze close, will the children be free to chose where they want to go or will they only be allowed to go where they can help achieve the 'right mix'?"
"As they admit, this 'key review objective' is not stated in the Schools Organisation Plan. It therefore has no official status as a Local Education Authority policy. Will Labour now try to change the rules to fit a recommendation deliberately introduced to deal with one possible school? The result could distort the way in which parental preference is allowed to be used throughout the City and would soon affect all schools."
"A balanced social mix within a school could be very desirable and beneficial to educational attainment. However, I believe it is better to achieve this by encouraging a balanced social mix in the local community, rather than enforcing an arbitrary distortion to the availability of places at a local community school."
Currently the actual percentages vary from St Mary Redcliffe (5%) to Lockleaze School (41%). The average for City schools bound by the LEA admissions policy is 23%. This is far higher than at Cotham (9%), Bedminster (14%), Brislington (15%) and Ashton Park (18%), but lower than Fairfield (30%), St George Community College (33%), Withywood (34%) and Lawrence Weston (34%), which are well above average.
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