CHOOSING A SCHOOL FOR YOUR CHILD 

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2024

How far you live from the school and the number of people applying to the school with either a closer postcode or higher criteria for attending the school will ultimately decide if you are offered a place at a school.

It is however good to have a look and good to have options. 

Our advice is visit the school. 

All good Headteachers, teachers and those in education will advise you to go and have a look for yourself. 

You might have heard lots of good things (or not good things) but the best person to judge is you.

You may want to then have a look at other things such as the school website and to particularly the Reception pages where there will be information, photos and even videos to show you the amazing learning that is happening. 

This should give you a flavour of the school.

You may want to visit other parts of the website also to see what else happens at the school.

It may be you want to have a look at their OFSTED report also to see what an independant view is.

JOINING US AT FAIRLIGHT

New Children Joining us in Reception

Choosing a school for your child is a big decision and one that we would love to support and be part of.

It is always advisable to come and have a look at Fairlight as you know your child best and you can discuss their individual needs or requirements.

It is also good to see it first hand for yourself and not base your decision on what you have heard or what you might have read but most importantly on what you see and feel and know about your child. 

Almost all of our parents will tell you that they visited the school before they joined us.

DATES OF TOURS FOR RECEPTION 2025 STARTERS

Over the past 3 years we have seen the largest number of parents visiting our school in the school's history.

We are therefore expecting an extremely large number of applications to join us in September 2025.

Please book on to one of our tours using this link -

https://forms.office.com/e/aec68JBCrC

9:30am Monday 23rd September 
1:30pm Wednesday 9th October 
9:30am Tuesday 22nd October
1:30pm Thursday 7th November 
9:30am Monday 18th November
1:30pm Wednesday 4th December
9:30am Wednesday 11th December 

REASONS WE THINK TO CHOOSE FAIRLIGHT

UPDATED SEPTEMBER 2024

REASONS TO CHOOSE FAIRLIGHT

Parents are very lucky to have a choice of which school to send their child to in Brighton and Hove. Having been Headteacher at Fairlight for 16 years I have shown vast numbers of parents around the school and I have heard a wide array of reasons for why parents choose Fairlight but also why they choose other schools. 

Some are very sensible and well thought out reasons however, sometimes the reasons are not sensible, are based on incorrect information or something that happened 12 years ago to their uncle, dog walker, next door neighbour or something they saw on Facebook.

As Headteacher of Fairlight I would urge any parent to visit schools to see for yourself. To then think about your own child and their unique talents and needs. And to make the decision based on your observations and information. 

And base your decision on the current time, not about Year 6, which for your child is 7 years away. 

 

To help and guide here are the Top 5 reasons why I feel you should send your child to Fairlight Primary and Nursery School. 

They are not in any particular order as I feel they hold equal importance. 

I have written them based on my role as an experienced Headteacher, having been a school leader nationally and locally and what I know about education at the current time. 

In addition, before you say "These tips are going to be biased towards Fairlight" ...That is after all my job.

I hope they provoke some thoughts about what you know. What you have seen. And help you with the very difficult decision you are about to make.

 

STABILITY

Schools across the country as well as Brighton and Hove are seeing changes to how they run. For example, the size of the school and some are even having to be considered for closure or have in fact been closed.

Schools are having to consider what they can offer in terms of education and support. Also around staffing and the Leadership of the school. 

Teacher recruitment and retention is challenging. As is leadership recruitment and retention at all levels but particularly in Headship both nationally and locally with many changes to Heads. 

Many feel there is a crisis in schools at the current time due to poor financial support for education by the previous Government from direct funding to schools to investment in training and recruitment of new teachers and school leaders. I would support this view.

At Fairlight we are not exempt from the impact of this however we have not been directly involved in any consultations about making changes to our school at the current time. In fact, we are working with the Local Authority on a number of exciting areas to add to the amazing work that we do.

A strong and experienced leadership team from Headteacher, Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and Governors has been associated with Fairlight for over 50 years. And are not planning to go anywhere soon!

The staff at Fairlight range in experience from newly qualified staff and those starting on their career in education to those with years of experience and expertise. This mix means we are able to continue to develop our knowledge and understanding of education and learning- alongside our work in research with the Durrington Reasearch School, which introduces many new areas into education.

We also continue to work closely with Brighton and Sussex Universities as well as local colleges to support continued learning and to continue to produce the next generation of teachers and support staff. 

 

PROGRESS

Some people like to know if something is good or is good based on someone else’s rating or opinion. Some make a big thing of this information and base their decision on this.

OFSTED give an opinion on how well they think a school is doing however this system is somewhat flawed as many schools are not seen for 10+ years and yet get to retain their rating whereas others have seen OFSTED 3 times in the same period. 

OFSTED come and make a judgement about a school based on a day and half in a school and using a criteria that does not hugely take in to account the differences between schools and the backgrounds of those who attend. The system judges every school against the same criteria. A bit like saying that Brighton have failed if they don’t win the European Cup when Manchester City or Manchester United do and yet if they make it to the final they have done well.

As a proud Brighton and Hove Albion Fan I am proud of my club and how well they are run and how well they are doing. And yet we haven’t won anything forever. Which is not important.

Fairlight Primary and Nursery School was last rated a GOOD school by OFSTED. They even went as far as to say that if they had been able to they would have rated us as OUTSTANDING.

The Government publish a range of data about schools from financial data to exam data so that these can be compared, analysed and put into league tables.

Again, this uses the same criteria for all schools.

Some of the data however is useful to look at as it doesn’t show you a snapshot of a group of 11 year old children but a look at how well they have done over time.

This is Progress Data. It looks at how well children have done from the beginning of their education journey at a school until they leave.

At Fairlight this is the data that is the most important data we use as it gives a much better understanding of the impact of everything we do at the school.

Our Progress Data is always one of the best in the whole of Brighton and Hove and some of the best in the country.

I have put some context to show a couple of anonymized local schools to show how well we did.

   

SCHOOL NAME

PROGRESS SCORE IN READING

PROGRESS SCORE IN WRITING

PROGRESS SCORE IN MATHS

Fairlight Primary School

ABOVE AVERAGE

2.2

ABOVE AVERAGE

2.0

ABOVE AVERAGE

2.1

Other Local School E

AVERAGE

1.4

AVERAGE

0.5

BELOW AVERAGE

-1.8

Other Local School S

ABOVE AVERAGE

2.4

ABOVE AVERAGE

1.4

AVERAGE

-0.5

Other Local School Q

AVERAGE

-0.8

AVERAGE

0.0

BELOW AVERAGE

-2.3

 

INCLUSION

Fairlight is one of the most diverse primary schools in Brighton and Hove.

We have significantly above local and National numbers of children in a wide range of groups for whom Inclusion is key. From SEND (Special Needs), Autism (ASC or Neuro Diverse), BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) , EAL (English as an Additional Language), LAC (Looked After Child) as well as in groups that are not tracked in the same way such as same sex parents or multiple births.

To support this we have a wide range of additional support in school such as Play Therapy, Specialist Speech and Language Teaching, Inclusiosn Intervention Space, a Nurture Class and classroom base and Learning Mentors. We also purchase the Local Authority support in a range of areas such as EMAS (Ethnic Minority Acheivement Service) for children with EAL, BAME and Traveller support and BHISS (Brighton and Hove Inclusion Support Service) which includes Educational Psychology (EP), Literacy and Language Support Service (LLSS), Behaviour Support, Sensory Needs and a range of other areas.

Fairlight is also the host of EMAS for the whole of Brighton and Hove as well as being a Children Centre.

We are proud of the work we do supporting and working with children with SEND and their families.

 

PLAY

Under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child Article 31, play is a human right. All state parties have a duty to ensure every child has access to play.

Play is hugely important at Fairlight Primary and Nursery School. We understand that it is a key way in which children learn. And at this time when Well Being, Mental Health and physical health is such high profile we recognize that play is key to supporting this as it means children are happier and healthier and also play develops resilience, collaboration and inclusion.

Opal is an nationally recognised, award winning, mentor supported school improvement programme that addresses all the areas that schools must plan for if they want to strategically and sustainably improve the quality of their play opportunities. Currently 32,770 schools in the UK participate as well as schools from other parts of the world including Canada, America, Malaysia, Spain and many more.

Fairlight Primary and Nursery School is one of just a handful of schools who have achieved the Platinum Award on several occasions and as a result of this has been invited to be part of the OPAL College. This means we will continue to support other schools locally and nationally by hosting training sessions and sharing advice and support. We will also continue to develop and improve our play at Fairlight.

In March 2024 Fairlight Primary and Nursery accepted their most recent Award at the Houses of Parliament in Westminster and spoke to a group of assembled Ministers, Lords and advisors around the importance and the need for Play to be given a higher profile in schools.

 

VISION AND VALUES

Our Vision is clear.

Every Individual Child Achieves.

It is written by all members of the Fairlight community and is constantly reviewed and updated to match our needs and priorities.

Our Values underpin all that we do. They are Multicultural, Respect, Friendly, Learning, Technology, Inclusive, Community, Creative, Healthy, Fun, Supportive, Play, Progress, Superheroes, Enrichment.

What is important however, is that our Vision and Values match what we see and do at Fairlight. It isn’t some lofty and ambitious statement or list about what we hope to see or want to see. As this is what many often do and get confused over with Vision and Values.

The Fairlight Vision and Values is what you will see at Fairlight.  

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MOVING TO FAIRLIGHT

Children move schools, circumstances change. As a school we work hard to support children and families through this process and have lots of experience in this area.

Admission enquiries are welcome for children aged 5 -11yrs for our main school and to arrange a visit to the school. Please contact the School Office for details of when you can visit the school as well as if places available for this current year. You will also need to contact Brighton and Hove Admissions https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/content/children-and-education/school-admissions/school-admissions.

Transfers within a school year may take several weeks to arrange and places are normally allocated for the next available half term. If you are moving house and the house move does not tie in with this timescale you will be able to start school in the middle of the term if a place is available. 

For any children moving school we will need to discuss with parents and also the previous school how to make this experience as positive as possible.

A COMMENT ABOUT OUR AMAZING FILM

It is always very tricky to capture a Primary School or any organisation on a film. This is our efforts to try and capture what we are about at Fairlight.

It was filmed prior to the Covid Pandemic and not really meant as an advertising or sales tool. It was made to celebrate what we do and share this within our own community. 

The content of the film- what the children talk about and what was filmed- was chosen by the School Council members who both appear in the film as well as the many others who did not want to appear on screen.

As you can see from the film the children are very articulate about the school and what takes place during the day both in the classroom as well as in other areas such as the playground. 

Mr Jordan talks about various aspects of the school that you can both see and fills the gaps in what the children didn't talk about or share. The original film was over an hour so has been massively cut to make this short clip.

It shows the amazing building and fantastic play space. 

A "traditional" Inner City School as Mr Jordan describes it. Three sided with playground in the middle.

As you can see the children and Mr Jordan celebrate the amazing learning, fabulous play and inclusive approach to education.

ADMISSIONS INFORMATION

For more information and the forms you need to fill in please visit the Council Website https://www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/children-and-learning/brighton-hove-schools/starting-infant-junior-or-primary-school  

We have 14 classes, 2 in each year group from YR1-YR6. 

Admission Limit:

Foundation Stage - Reception - 60 children

KS1 (Year 1 & Year 2) - 120 children

KS2 (Year 3 - Year 6) - 240 children

Total Admission Limit - 420 children

 

You are welcome to look around our school at any time.  If you would like to make an appointment to visit the school, please contact us on 01273 601270. 

Throughout the Autumn term, we arrange group visits for parents of prospective Reception parents, during the day. Please contact the office to book a place on one of our group visits.

 

Arrangements for the admission of children to this school at age 4+ are made by Brighton and Hove City Council. A detailed description of the arrangements is contained in the guidance 'Infant, Junior & Primary School Admissions in Brighton & Hove which can be found at www.brighton-hove.gov.uk/schooladmissions. A hard copy can be obtained from the School Admissions Section, Children & Young People's Trust, PO BOX 2503, King's House, Grand Avenue, HOVE BN3 2SU (Tel: 01273 293653). 

 

Parents and carers may find it helpful to know that, if there are insufficient places available to meet demand, places will be allocated to children in accordance with the following list of priorities:

  • Children who are currently or were previously in the care of the local authority.
  • Children with compelling medical or other exceptional reasons for attending the school.
  • Children who in September 2025 will have a sibling at the school or at a linked junior school.
  • Children transferring between a linked infant and junior school. 

If it should be necessary to decide between children within any of these priority groups, this will be done by giving the places to those children who live closest to the school.