Agenda item - Chair's Communications

58.1   The Chair gave the following communication:

“1^st March National Offer Day for Secondary School Places: I’m pleased to announce that more than 95% of parents in Brighton & Hove who applied for a secondary school place for their child for September 2019 have been offered one of their preferred schools. In addition all parents who expressed a preference for one of their catchment area schools were offered one – unless they were offered a higher preference instead. 

The total number of applications this year was 2,734 – up from 2,569 last year. The choice is an easier one for parents in Brighton & Hove compared to most other parts of the country as all of our secondary schools are currently rated ‘Good’ by Ofsted.

In cases where parents weren’t offered one of their preferences, this was either because they missed the applications deadline or didn’t put down their catchment area school or schools as preferences. In these instances they were offered places at the nearest school to their home address that had places available.”

“National Apprenticeship Week: Today is the first day of National Apprenticeship week. In Brighton & Hove the week started with our 136 Council apprentices being invited to join our Chief Executive, Geoff Raw for breakfast in the Council Chamber. There will be a series of different events over the course of the week culminating in a graduation ceremony at the end of the week at the Amex Stadium”.

“Webcasting: I’d like to inform those present that this meeting will be webcast live and will be capable of repeated viewing.”