Two of the city’s most popular secondary schools have agreed to take extra pupils this year so no children will be given places miles away from them.
There was an outcry last year when 62 children living in the catchment for Dorothy Stringer and Varndean were not allocated a place at either school.
Angry parents campaigned for the schools to take bulge classes – but the council and the schools did not budge.
This year, 29 children who had applied for a place at both schools were not initially offered a place.
But Dorothy Stringer has agreed to take 19 extra children, and Varndean 10, bringing the total places offered to 349 and 310 respectively.
The published admissions number (PAN, or the number of children given a place in year 7) will not change – but council projections estimate there will be fewer children living in their catchment next year.
It is likely that the total numbers of children starting in September this year will be less than the number currently offered a place as families decide to switch schools or move out of the area.
Brighton and Hove is one of the few areas in the UK which operates a lottery allocation system for places.
It was implemented in 2008 with the aim of making it more difficult for parents to “buy” places at popular schools by moving closer to them.
Last summer, the council announced it was asking for views ahead of a new shake-up of admissions, which could include scrapping the system and/or changing catchment boundaries.
Meanwhile, the council is trying to work out how to reduce primary school intakes by a fifth as pupil numbers continue to drop.
In January, it dropped plans to cut numbers at seven primary schools – most of them undersubscribed and in deprived areas outside the city centre.
Councillors said they would try and persuade larger, more popular schools to cut their intakes to protect smaller ones instead.
