Seaford Head School admissions changes anger

Many parents claim to have not known about a consultation run by Seaford Head School for its admissions policy for the 2024/25 school year.

The school, based in Arundel Road, Seaford, will prioritise children of permanent staff members who have been with it for more than two years, as well as Chyngton Primary School pupils if it is oversubscribed.

Seaford Head School is popular after being rated outstanding by Ofsted and bucking the national trend with its improving GCSE results.

One parent from Seaford, whose child could be affected by the new admissions policy, said she and most other parents had no idea about the consultation.

• READ MORE: These schools look set to have admission numbers cut (full details of the plans)

The 38-year-old said: “People are angry that they didn’t know about the consultation.

“It took me two days to find out how to respond to the consultation. It feels like they’re not making it easy for people to put their views forward.

“It feels underhand, it feels like it was being done in secret. By saying children at Chyngton are guaranteed a place, it is basically an advert for people to put their children into that school.

“You don’t know how far away people will start coming from to Chyngton to be able to get their children to Seaford Head.

Seaford Head lower school (Image: Google Maps)

“There is no guarantee in the future that children in Seaford will be able to get into the school in five years.”

The published admission number for the school in 2024/25 will be 232 which is eight fewer than its 2023/24 admission number. The school has increased this year’s September intake to 260 from 240 at the request of East Sussex County Council.

East Sussex County Council said it does not expect Seaford Head to be oversubscribed following its new admission arrangements but if it was, the authority would “ensure sufficient spaces could be provided for all the applicants living in the area”.

James MacCleary, leader of Lewes District Council, and Carolyn Lambert, Liberal Democrat councillor for Seaford South, raised their concerns about the admissions consultation “not being widely publicised among parents and the feeder primary schools in Seaford”.

The consultation was launched in November last year

The consultation was launched on November 7 and was available on East Sussex County Council’s website. It ended last Friday, January 6.

When approached for comment, Seaford Head School’s headteacher Bob Ellis said he would write to councillors directly.

In the response, now seen by The Argus, the school said it would like to “reassure” councillors that all Seaford primary schools have been “made fully aware of the proposals” and an email was sent notifying them of this on November 8.

Annecy Catholic Primary School, one of the five primary schools in Seaford, said it “did not receive a copy of the admission arrangements consultation”.

Seaford Head lower school (Image: Google Maps)

Seaford Primary School, Cradle Hill Community Primary School, and Cuckmere House School did not comment.

Chyngton joined Seaford Head as part of the Seaford Learning Trust which is why it has priority over other schools in the area.

The letter also stated: “This [the new admissions policy] was discussed not only as part of this consultation but also during the consultation process for the creation of the Seaford Learning Trust as it was an obvious benefit to Chyngton joining the trust. The group of Seaford headteachers meet on a termly basis so the Seaford Primaries have been fully aware since the possibility of Chyngton joining the trust was first discussed over 18 months ago.”

It continued: “Even though children from Chyngton will be prioritised, we will continue to work with the local authority to ensure that any child living in the Seaford area will have access to a secondary school place at Seaford Head School.”