Secondary school choices

I write in reference to the articles in recent editions of the County Times about the withdrawal of the temporary school buses which were provided due to the delayed-construction of the bridge over the A264.

You need to go back 12 years to the David Cameron/Nick Clegg coalition government of 2010. It was then decided that there would be no new schools except for free schools (free being free from local authority control and in Horsham’s case West Sussex County Council) and academies.

These would be funded direct from central government’s Education Department, which at the time was headed by Michael Gove. This is the reason why it took so long for a new secondarys school to be built.

Free also means that a school can set its own pay and conditions, change the length of the school term and does not have to follow the national curriculum. However, the students are not funded for free transport to and from school.

I have a granddaughter who attends an academy two miles from home. Transport is provided locally by minibus paid for by her parents.

It is interesting to note that this situation arose because she did not get into the first-choice secondary school just a ten-minute walk away. Apparently a school’s admission criteria places being in the immediate catchment area at the bottom, at number five.

Step forward Bohunt Education Trust (BET) with Bohunt Horsham in the development, which was known as North of Horsham.

We now learn that a public bus service will not be forthcoming due to the rising cost of fuel and shortage of drivers

With a projected total number of 1,620 students (including juniors starting in 2023) and a nursery school for 50 children. BET do need to come up with some sort of resolution for travel arrangements.

Perhaps ‘paid-for’ minibus travel from areas such as Southwater is a possibility.

Anything to reduce the number of car journeys which parents will feel they have to make where cycling and walking is not an option.

Previously, the only coeducational secondary school in Horsham was Tanbridge House School so, no doubt, Bohunt Horsham was welcomed.

But, now that The Forest School is co-educational (with the positive article also in a previous week’s County Times) there is more of a choice.

Millais remains a very popular girls’ secondary school.

ANGELA CORNFORD St Leonards Road, Horsham