More children have been allocated a place at their first choice secondary school in Brighton and Hove this coming September than last year.
In total, 1,921 pupils out of 2,270 – or about 84 per cent – will go to their first choice school, compared with 1,861 out of 2,303 last September – or about 80 per cent.
And fears of mass displacement of children starting secondary school have proved unfounded, with just five pupils not offered a place at one of their preferred schools.
Parents raised concerns about “open admissions” proposals and changes to catchment areas for Dorothy Stringer and Varndean for September 2026 when Brighton and Hove City Council carried out a consultation last year.
In the Dorothy Stringer and Varndean catchment area, the council said that all families except for one had been given a place at one of their preferred schools.
Blatchington Mill, Stringer and Varndean filled all of their “open admission” places, a new criterion for September 2026.
Five per cent of the places at all three schools as well as at Hove Park – the secondaries in dual catchment areas – were reserved for pupils in single-school catchments.
Stringer and Blatch filled 17 places each under this criterion while the number for Varndean was 15.
The families of 55 children from the Stringer and Varndean catchment expressed a first preference for a school outside their area. The equivalent figure for Blatch and Hove Park was 27.
In the Stringer and Varndean catchment, the Brighton Aldridge Community Academy (BACA) proved the most popular out of catchment school. Places were offered to 27 children whose families listed it as their first or second preference.
In Hove, 21 places at the Portslade Aldridge Community Academy (PACA) were offered to children from the Blatch and Hove Park catchment who opted for the school.
The Labour deputy leader of the council Jacob Taylor said that he was aware from speaking to head teachers that school open days were much busier this year as parents looked at more options than usual.
This has been a particularly successful year for BACA with an improved Ofsted rating of “good” and hundreds attending the open day. The school offered places to 146 children for year 7 in September and has just 16 unfilled places.
Councillor Taylor said: “The open admissions criterion is taking effect and families from across the city are making use of it.
“At the same time, families from central areas have been visiting other schools and choosing to express first and second preferences for schools outside the central areas, ie, schools in single school catchment areas.”
“As such, there has actually been a higher number of families getting their first preference – from all areas. It’s a positive overall outcome.”
The education campaign group Class Divide welcomed the result, having called on the council to give youngsters from the more deprived areas of Brighton and Hove the chance to apply for a place at the more popular schools.
The group’s co-founder Curtis James said: “It is a victory for the parents who have fought for equity, and our volunteers who have given up precious time to fight for children’s rights.
“It should also completely reassure parents who were scared their children would be redirected from their catchment schools.”
Whitehawk father-of-three Lewis Smith, who addressed councillors during the consultation, said: “We are finally seeing outcomes driven by real choice and opportunity for our children rather than having none.
“The fact that schools are opening their doors to children outside their immediate neighbourhoods proves that the open admissions and free school meals priorities are working.”
Another education campaign group, the Parent Support Group, said that it was pleased that its challenge to the schools adjudicator meant that Dorothy Stringer and Blatchington Mill had not reduced their intake this year.
The group said: “Those objections protected 60 places at the schools most families prefer, allowing more children to attend their local school.
“It has avoided scenarios in which some children would have faced bus journeys to school of up to three hours a day in a local authority which is already one of the worst in the country for absence.
“The lasting impact is serious. The council has created uncertainty, undermined confidence in the admissions system and has intensified the pressures on schools such as Longhill.”
The council’s admissions priorities were changed for the most recent intake, giving greater priority to pupils living outside a catchment area but who were eligible for free school meals.
Dorothy Stringer is expected to take 31 children from out of catchment who are eligible for free school meals this coming September. It will mean that 84 year 7 pupils in all will be eligible for free school meals.
Varndean is expected to have the highest number of children who will be eligible for free school meals – 90 out of 300. Only five of those will come from outside the catchment area.
Four families in the Hove catchment area expressed a preference for Blatchington Mill but were not offered a place at any of their preferred schools.
Hove Park, Longhill and Patcham High were all able to offer places to all pupils in their catchment areas whose family expressed a preference for them. All three schools still have places available, as do PACA and BACA.
Cardinal Newman Catholic School in Hove was the most oversubscribed school, with 498 first choice applications for one of the 360 places. In all, 352 pupils were offered a place based on their family’s first preference.
Varndean was the second-most oversubscribed school with 370 applications for one of the 300 places, with 274 gaining a first preference place.
Longhill was the most under-subscribed school, with 72 children offered a place after it was listed as their family’s first preference. Nine other children have been offered a place after it was listed as their family’s second preference. Some 81 places have been filled out of a possible 210.
Considering such low application numbers why is the PAN of Longhill so large?
Because the council said during consultation that it needed to be that size to be viable. They then tried to force parents from the centre of town to send their children to undersubscribed schools like Longhill by reducing the size of schools in higher demand. The schools adjudicator found against the council changing class sizes. Unsurprisingly, families do not want to send their kids on a long bus journey when they already live next to a good school. The council now clam a great success despite being the ones who have put Longhill in this position.
It’s a really bad school in the middle of nowhere. Even the families that live near it don’t want to attend. It’s also very expensive to run. Best thing to do would be to close it down but one of the main council numpties Jacob Taylor was a pupil there and doesn’t want to lose face.
Because the school got stuck with a reputation as rammed full of feral Whitehawk kids and the middle classes legged it. The irony? It’s now far from packed, the Whitehawk kids are at Varndean and a spacious, peaceful school is what a lot of parents say they want for their kids.
What these headline figures don’t show is how many families have opted out altogether – choosing private education, home schooling, or even leaving Brighton because of anxiety over secondary admissions.
I’m personally aware of families who have gone private, and at least one who left the city, specifically to avoid the risk of displacement. If even a small but growing number of families feel compelled to exit the system, that’s a significant policy impact – and one the council should examine. First-preference statistics alone don’t tell the full story.
Curtis James from Class Divide says the outcome “should completely reassure parents who were scared their children would be redirected from their catchment schools.”
Yet he has also campaigned for open admissions to rise to 30% and supported reducing PAN at Dorothy Stringer and Blatchington Mill by 30 places each. Had those proposals been implemented, the number of children displaced from catchment would almost certainly have been higher.
Councillor Jacob Taylor highlights that 84% received their first preference and calls it “a positive overall outcome.” But that figure excludes families who have already stepped away from the system. It also overlooks the fact that proposed PAN reductions were overturned by the Schools Adjudicator, and open admissions was reduced from 20% to 5%. The outcome might have looked very different had those decisions stood.
Absolutely agree. From looking at the school census data it looks like about 60 families who were due to have a child start Secondary school in September 2026 have left Brighton and Hove in the last year. I know that concerns about schools will have been a factor for at least some of them.
The negative impact of the Council’s policies to increase parental choice does seem to have been felt most by Longhill. They only have 81 children joining the school next September – well below the 210 spaces they have available. A lot of primary schools in the City have larger intakes. Plus it looks like the proportion of those children on free school meals at Longhill is increasing to 49% (the current average for the school is 44%). So the Council’s ambitions for increased ‘social mixing’ in schools are not being achieved either.
“with just five pupils not offered a place at one of their preferred schools” – I don’t really think being given your 3rd or 4th choice can be classed as being given one of your preferred schools…let’s be honest, peoples 3rd and 4th choices are not going to more easy to get to / where they particularly want to go, but parents feel pressured to fill them in so they don’t get sent to somewhere unpopular…
The statements by the council and class divide are disingenuous. If it hadn’t been for the appeal to the school adjudicator we would have had 60 fewer places in central schools (where most children actually live) and those kids would have had to commute to the edge of town.
They are now pretending the system delivered is what they fought for. Similarly, councillor Taylor says families in the central catchments ‘chose’ schools outside our community. We had no choice because the council designed a system where children are purposely displaced from their local schools. As a parent having gone through this process, I hated the way that the council pitted communities against each other. It is not too much to ask for the council to provide a good local school. They need to do less social engineering and more supporting schools. If they do not more schools will close.