Councillor refers Beechen Cliff to Schools Adjudicator over ‘discrimination’

The deputy leader of B&NES Labour Group, Councillor Joe Rayment has referred Beechen Cliff School to the School Adjudicator over what he believes is a ‘discriminatory’ admissions policy.

Cllr Rayment has complained that he believes Beechen Cliff’s admissions policy unfairly discriminates against children from less wealthy families.

His research into the admissions policy of Beechen Cliff has shown that children in the BA1 postcode area have a 50% higher chance of gaining a place at the school than children living in the BA2 postcode area.

Despite Beechen Cliff being located south of the river, it has a policy of assigning 40% of places to children in the north of the city, 40% to children in the south and 20% to children living outside Bath.

Cllr Rayment has claimed that because there are 50% more children living south of the river, the school is being discriminatory.

He has gone on to accuse Beechen Cliff of deliberately exercising this policy because the school wishes to maintain its reputation as an ‘exclusive’ school.

Councillor Rayment said: “I decided to investigate Beechen Cliff’s admissions practices because of the huge number of disappointed parents who contacted me after their son had not secured a place at the school.

“These were from parents across the south of Bath, not just from Twerton, and it seemed curious to me that so many children in the south of the city had applied for places at Beechen Cliff but not been offered a place.

“As I dug deeper into the admissions policy, I was more and more shocked at how unequal it is. It is quite clear that Beechen Cliff is giving a massive advantage to children in BA1, at the expense of children in BA2.

“This cannot be right, and so I hope that the Schools Adjudicator will rule that they must change this policy immediately.

“Unfortunately, it will be too late for many young boys in Bath, but hopefully we can stop this discrimination carrying on for another year.”

The Bath Echo contacted Beechen Cliff School for a comment, but at the time of publishing there has been no response. If we receive a reply, this story will be updated.