Sep
11
2013

The Bilingual Primary School and the Proposed Hove Depot Site.

An article by Guest Mum

I need to ask you all a big, fat favour. Please read this piece with an open mind and consider what the best thing is for our city, our kids and our future, given everything you know. Then pause and make sure you have the facts, because it’s all getting a bit smoke and mirrors out there.

The Parents and Friends of the Bilingual Primary School have been having a bit of a battle with a local conservation group (with the ear of a local newspaper), about getting the actual facts into the public domain regarding our school’s planning application to build on an old council depot, next to Hove Park. I want to put a few things straight!

My daughter already attends the Bilingual Primary School. She started in reception last year, after I spent the best part of a year looking at our options, working out our proximity to other local schools, weighing-up the risks and benefits of punting on this new, untested school against taking our chances in the existing schools where we might get a place.

I looked in detail at the benefits of a bilingual education. Here are a couple of articles, but if you’re interested, Google it. There are volumes of information out there. (For me it was never about the Spanish in particular, but in practice, it’s practical, as we’re close enough to visit and it’s widely spoken across the world).

http://livingbilingual.com/2013/06/01/being-bilingual-the-neuroplastic-workout/

http://science.time.com/2013/07/18/how-the-brain-benefits-from-being-bilingual/

My daughter knew her letters before starting school last year and could write her name, but not much else. She is young for the year, having turned 5 in June. She now reads and writes voraciously, and her favourite activity is maths. Academically, the school has surpassed all our expectations. Most of the children just starting year one this month were reading and doing maths at year one standard at the end of their reception year.

They are also all speaking Spanish. About half of the kids at the school live in a single-language, English speaking home. To have the opportunity to raise a bilingual child, when you yourself are not bilingual is an absolute gift. This is ground-breaking stuff!

The school had initially always been proposed for West Hove/Portslade, so lots of the first families, supporting the project when it was just an idea, live over this way. In the end we were temporarily housed in Falmer (it’s a fantastic site, but a long way from home and only available to us until next September). A bus is subsidised by the school for those first parents, but families starting this year are paying the whole cost themselves. It’s expensive and a long travel, and almost put me off. Putting my (just) four year old on a bus for a bit over hour altogether each day seemed one-step-too-far in the pursuit of an excellent education. But it’s been worth the cost and the angst, and actually, the bus is a bit of a badge of honour for these ‘so grown-up now’ kids! (There is a teaching assistant on board by the way).

The school is open to everyone in our amazing, diverse city, and operates admissions on a lottery basis when it’s oversubscribed. It was oversubscribed this year. Brighton and Hove parents really want this opportunity for their children.

This is a state-funded, free school (it is not a private school, and there are no fees).

We now need a permanent site. We are based in what will be the 6^th form wing of the Brighton Aldridge Community Academy, and our current space will be needed by BACA in September

There is a council depot on The Droveway in Hove (opposite the Legal and General Buildings, and next to the Engineerium). The school have applied for planning permission to build on this site. It’s not in Hove Park. It’s on old depot ground. Go and have a look.

Our planning application has been opposed by an organisation called Save Hove. Uncomfortably, there has been some factually incorrect information put out there by this group. Again do have a Google - some of the comments on The Argus site and tweets are truly eye opening (jaw dropping), and will give you an idea of what we’re up against.

I absolutely understand any local resident’s reluctance to welcome a school’s-worth of cars and kids into the roads around their houses. I can appreciate what an inconvenience it has been absorbing the L&G and Lloyds TSB office parking and how it must have impacted them.

I think we can get around this though. One solution would be to continue to offer a bus shuttle service. The kids could be delivered to a walking crocodile at any of the existing stops on the Old Shoreham Road, Neville Road and Goldstone Crescent. Alternatively, the Depot Site already has great transport links – families from right across the city can use the trains, alighting at Hove or Aldrington and it’s on multiple existing bus routes. We’re all already using private buses, public transport and car sharing. Given the price of petrol, most of us would not choose to deliver our kids by car, unless we are car (and petrol) sharing even if we didn’t have these parking and congestion issues.

Just to clarify a few points

This site is not within Hove Park.
The children will not have access to the park. Think about safeguarding. That would be impossible. The entire school site will be fenced, and secure.
The proposed school has its own playing areas, within the grounds. (see plans)
The miniature railway will not be affected. (see plans)
These children will very likely all use the park after school. Maybe even a bit before school in the summer months. Some families will certainly walk across it, as do hundreds of office workers, families, gym users, dog walkers, bootcampers and Tai Chi-ers. We all pay our council tax. Hove Park belongs to everyone living in Brighton and Hove.
The Depot site was earmarked for a Primary School over three years ago by Brighton and Hove City council.
We need more schools in Brighton and Hove.

This is a brilliant site, tucked away just outside the North West side of the park behind the miniature railway. It’s not within the Hove Park boundaries. Have a look at the space we’re proposing to build on!

This is how it looks today

And here is a link to a drawing from the planning application

And if you want to know where it is in relation to the park, here’s another to Google maps showing you what’s on the site right now (it’s the grey, desolate, industrial, brownfield bit , north west of the park).

Please support our planning application. There are around 150 pupils already in attendance at this wonderful school, the UK’s first fully Bilingual, State funded Primary school. What a fantastic opportunity both for our children and our city.

If you’re with us, please register your support on the Brighton and Hove council website.

The decision is being made over the next couple of weeks.