An open letter from 26 academics about the BHCC school admissions proposals
To: all councillors and local MPs
We write in response to plans proposed by Brighton and Hove City Council in relation to catchment areas, school sustainability, and social diversity in local schools.
As academics and researchers in education and related fields (including geographies), we are aware that bold steps are needed to reduce persistent educational inequities – but that they are rarely taken.
In the UK, educational attainment continues to be closely linked to socio-economic background. Research by the Sutton Trust has long shown that what are deemed the country’s most ‘successful’ comprehensive state schools are also relatively more socially exclusive. Research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has shown that school choice environment is related to levels of social segregation and that English schools are more segregated by income than Scottish schools. The existence of a premium on housing near popular schools, due to geographic catchment areas, is also established. Britain is already a highly segregated society and has the most socially segregated system of education in Europe according to Professor Danny Dorling.Research also shows that schools with high concentrations of pupils from under-resourced backgrounds have many challenges not faced by schools with more privileged intakes. These include teacher recruitment and retention, less access to the resources and support offered by parents from more privileged backgrounds (e.g. as fundraisers or governors), and constant decisions about resource allocation that are not fully addressed by the Pupil Premium. Despite their often-remarkable work against these odds, they may consequently suffer from stigma and poor reputations locally, in ways that also impact their students. All these could be said to be true of some schools in Brighton and Hove. The damage of social segregation has been linked to worse pupil outcomes overall, lower aspirations, less ethnic and social cohesion, and reduced trust in society by students.
One way to ‘improve’ schools (e.g. in terms of overall attainment) and provide other benefits in terms of cross-cultural understanding, reducing stigma, etc, can be to promote a more diverse social mix. Reforms also need to offer greater opportunities for a larger number of young people. This does not mean that pupils from well-resourced backgrounds lose out: Danny Dorling’s research shows that having a low level of variation between school outcomes (that is, where all schools serve mixed communities) tends to place a country near the top of the education league table, as has been the case with Finland.
While the signatories of this letter may hold varying views on specific implementation details of the BHCC proposals, we endorse the principles of:
Promoting socially mixed schools
Striking a balance between meaningful parental choice and equity
Taking systematic and collective action to reduce educational inequality
These principles may take courage to enact, but we believe attempts to do so should be supported, researched, evaluated and developed to inspire further change.
Yours sincerely
Dr Sara Bragg
Associate Professor in Sociology of Education
Institute of Education UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society
(Brighton resident)
Louise Archer
Karl Mannheim Professor of Sociology of Education
Co-chair of the Centre for Sociology of Education and Equity
Institute of Education, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society
Stephen Ball
Professor of Sociology of Education (Emeritus)
Institute of Education, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society
Vicky Duckworth
Professor of Further Education
Edge Hill University
Máiréad Dunne
Professor of Sociology of Education
School of Education and Social Work
University of Sussex
Matt Easterbrook
Reader in Social Psychology (Psychology)
School of Psychology
University of Sussex
Michael Fielding
Professor of Education (Emeritus)
Institute of Education UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society
Local resident
Dr Tom Fryer
Manchester Institute of EducationUniversity of Manchester
Dr Sol Gamsu,
Assistant Professor, Dept of SociologyDurham University
Francis Green
Professor of Work and Education Economics
Institute of Education UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society
Dr Nimi Hoffman
Assistant Professor in International Education and Development (Education)
School of Education and Social Work
University of Sussex
Lisa Holmes
Professor of Applied Social Science
School of Education and Social Work
University of Sussex
Dr Perpetua Kirby
Assistant Professor in Childhood and Youth (Education)
School of Education and Social Work
University of Sussex
Dr Birgul Kutan
Assistant Professor (Education)
School of Education and Social Work
Peter Moss
Professor of Education (Emeritus)
Institute of Education UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society
Mario Novelli
Professor in the Political Economy of Education
University of Sussex
Caroline Oliver
Professor of Sociology
Co-chair of the Centre for Sociology of Education and Equity
Institute of Education UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society
Diane Reay
Professor of Education
Cambridge University
Jessica Ringrose
Professor of the Sociology of Gender and Education
Co-chair of the Centre for Sociology of Education and Equity
Institute of Education UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society
Ben Rogaly
Professor of Human Geography
Department of Geography
School of Global Studies
University of Sussex
Dr Charlene Rumsby
Assistant Professor in Childhood and Youth
Department of Social Work & Social Care
University of Sussex
Carol Taylor
Professor
Department of Education
University of Bath
(former / current local resident)
Rachel Thomson
Professor of Childhood & Youth Studies (Social Work and Social Care)
School of Education and Social Work
University of Sussex
Dr Rebecca Webb
Associate Professor in Early Years and Primary Education (Education)
School of Education and Social Work
University of Sussex
Andrew W. Wilkins
Reader in Education
Department of Educational Studies
Goldsmiths, University of London
Tom Woodin
Professor of the Social History of Education
Institute of Education UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society
Letter compiled by local resident:
Dr Sara Bragg (she/her)
Associate Professor
Centre for Sociology of Education and Equity
Programme Leader, MA Social Justice and Education
IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society
Department of Education, Practice and Society
20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL
Fellow, Higher Education Academy.
Orcid ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0377-5843
Select recent publications:
Renold, EJ, Sara Bragg, Jessica Ringrose, Betsy Milne, Ester McGeeney, and Vicky Timperley. “Attune, Animate and Amplify: Creating Youth Voice Assemblages in pARTicipatory Sexuality Education Research.” Children & Society, 2024. doi:10.1111/chso.12862.
Bragg, Sara. (2024) "A logic of care in / of / for voice: tuning-in, enacting and assembling in student voice practices and education." Education 3-13: 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/03004279.2024.2331955
Bragg, Sara, and Jessica Ringrose. 2023. "Intervening in school uniform debates: making equity matter in England." In School Uniforms: New Materialist Perspectives, edited by Rachel Shanks, Julie Ovington, Beth Cross and Ainsley Carnarvon, 49-66. Springer Nature.
State of UK Boys 2022: long and short reports https://www.equimundo.org/resources/the-state-of-uk-boys/
Bragg, Sara, et al. 2022. 'Enacting whole-school relationships and sexuality education in England: Context matters', British Educational Research Journal, 48:4, August https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/berj.3788
Thomson, Rachel, Sara Bragg, and Kate O’Riordan. 2021. Digital Intimacies and LGBT+ Youth: Celebration, Equity and Safety. Brighton: University of Sussex.
R. Thomson, L. Berriman and S. Bragg (2018) Researching Everyday Childhoods: time technology and documentation in a digital age. London: Bloomsbury. Open Acces: https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/book/researching-everyday-childhoods-time-technology-and-documentation-in-a-digital-age/