On March 1st 2023 secondary school allocations were sent out. In West Sussex, 96.1% of all secondary school applicants were offered one of their three preferences. However that leaves 372 children being offered non-preferred schools. In some instances, children are being asked to travel 14+ miles to their new school.

In Horsham, last year and this year Forest School, Tanbridge House School and Bohunt School had near to maximum allocation. However last year and this year Millais School for Girls is undersubscribed.

This is due to the fact that a lot of girls now prefer a co-ed education and have taken advantage of Forest School becoming a co-ed school. This has left a huge gap at Millais as shown by their low submission figures.

The fact that girls have started to take up allocation at Forest School means that boys that would normally have potentially attended Forest are being asked to travel further afield. This just seems wrong considering we have another school in Millais which has available school places. If Millais became a co-ed school, this issue would potentially lessen.

This problem will continue and will get worse every single year. The long term goal would be for a new secondary school to be built to take the burden of the three main schools in Horsham. However, with so many Horsham school places available at Millais, moving to a co-ed school seems like a real quick win.

This may not affect you and your children now, but if something isn’t done immediately, all infant and junior school years will feel the full force of this problem in the future.

Let’s get this done and save any more upset every March. Millais has to become a co-ed school!