Parents desert Eastbourne School

6.00.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Fri 16th Jun 2006

Figures for Year 7 applications to secondary schools show that parents are voting with their feet and refusing to send their children to Eastbourne School. Of 155 available places, only 65 have been filled! If this trend continued, the school would eventually have just 350 pupils.

Parents have shown that educational standards and achievement are more important than promises of new school buildings. The proposals to replace Eastbourne School with an Academy are called into serious question - where will the pupils come from?

In contrast to Eastbourne's surplus of 90 places, Hummersknot is over-subscribed by 49 and Hurworth by 25. Parents have shown their support for the Lib Dem's defence of the independence of Hurworth School.

The full set of figures for Year 7 applications are:

Eastbourne: 90 surplus places

Branksome: 53 surplus places

Haughton: 28 surplus places

Longfield: 18 surplus places

Hurworth: 25 over-subscribed

Hummersknot: 49 over-subscribed.

The imbalance created by these figures shows that parents in Darlington are not happy with the quality of education on offer in the town and re-inforces the Liberal Democrats' demands for a thorough, open and unprejudiced review of secondary education throughout the Borough.