Local Authority control

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Carden Road School built 1948

From the private collection of Martin Nimmo

Please note that this text is an extract from a reference work written in 1990.  As a result, some of the content may not reflect recent research, changes and events.

d) LOCAL AUTHORITY CONTROL: Following the 1902 Education Act the education committee of the county borough council took over all responsibility for public elementary, secondary and technical education in the town, including the church schools, on 1 April 1903, but charges for secondary education were maintained (with one quarter of places provided free from 1907) until the 1944 Education Act was passed. Many new schools have been opened by the local education authority since 1903, including: Balfour Road (1924); Bevendean (1950); Carden (1948); Carlton Hill (1963); Coldean (1952); Coombe Road (1912); Dorothy Stringer (1955, Surrenden Pool 1972); Falmer High (1974, Stanmer Secondary 1951, Westlain Grammar 1957); Hertford Road (1931); Loder Road (1910, closed 1924); Longhill (1963); Middle Street (1974, see above); Moulsecoomb Primary (1929); Moulsecoomb Junior (1930); Patcham High (1989, formerly Patcham Fawcett (1966) & Patcham Margaret Hardy (1969, originally Patcham Secondary 1937)); Rottingdean Junior and Primary (1953); St Joseph’s (1956); Saltdean (1962); Stanley Deason (1976, Whitehawk 1933, Leisure Centre 1984); Varndean Sixth Form (1931 formerly boys’ grammar); Varndean High (1926 formerly girls’ grammar); Westdene (1961); Whitehawk Junior (1934); Whitehawk Primary (1935); and Woodingdean Primary (1949, swimming-pool 1977).
On 1 April 1974, under the terms of the 1972 Local Government Act, East Sussex County Council became the local education authority and put into effect the county borough council’s decision to change to comprehensive education over a period of several years from September 1975. Grammar schools were abolished and secondary education was concentrated on seven ‘high schools’, while more advanced teaching was concentrated at the new ‘sixth-form colleges’. The largest school is now Falmer High which has about 1,250 pupils, followed by Dorothy Stringer High (1,170) and Stanley Deason High (1,070). {83,115,123,124,203,296a}
Michael Faraday College , a sponsored ‘city technology college’ for 800 eleven- to eighteen-year-olds outside the responsibility of the local education authority, was to have been established at Woodingdean in September 1991, but the proposal was dropped because of a lack of finance. {123}

Any numerical cross-references in the text above refer to resources in the Sources and Bibliography section of the Encyclopaedia of Brighton by Tim Carder