I am pleased Voice Of The Argus (June 23) recognised the excellent job Dr Jill Clough is doing as principal of the East Brighton College of Media Arts (Comart). The LEA agrees and she has our full support.

It is not fair, however, to blame the school admissions policy for the recent voluntary redundancies at the college. It is not the admissions policy that determines how many pupils go to the school but how popular the school is in the local community.

Comart has the potential to attract back a large intake of pupils but only when confidence returns. Until then, the college has to reduce its staffing levels to match the smaller numbers of pupils. The good news is that things are definitely improving.

Meanwhile, the LEA and the Government are providing extra financial support, recognising the school needs help in the short term if it is to be a success in the long term.

The medium-term strategy does, however, require some reduction in staff numbers in the short term because, at the moment, there are fewer students entering the school each year than are leaving.

This will still mean the staff-pupil ratio in the college is better than any other secondary school in the city. As Dr Clough rightly points out, there is no educational reason why parents should not place their confidence in the school for the future.

-David Hawker, strategic director, Education and Lifelong Learning, Brighton and Hove City Council