Infant and junior schools are to be merged as part of a city-wide reorganisation.

Brighton and Hove City Council has launched a review of school places to try to meet the future demands of different areas of the city.

It will look at expanding and reducing schools and the possibility of building a new primary, as well as mergers.

The council has stated a desire to create all-through primary schools where possible, signalling the likelihood that 12 existing sets of infant and junior schools will be amalgamated.

The first pair, West Blatchington Infant and West Blatchington Junior, are scheduled to become one school from September.

West Blatchington Junior headteacher Rob Thomson, whose planned retirement this August has prompted the move, said: "Obviously there are some fears about it but I think it will be the best thing for pupils to have one primary."

Previous merger attempts in the city have met fierce opposition.

In 2002 the council backed out of plans to merge Hertford Junior and Hertford Infants after a public outcry and a schools adjudicator ruled that Balfour Junior and Balfour Infants should not be merged because they were both performing too well.

In the same year headteacher Richard Sutton-Smith quit his job because of the difficulties of working between the sites of newly amalgammated Goldstone Junior and Knoll Infant.

The council said where infant and junior schools were on different sites it would investigate expanding some as individual primaries.

It said national evidence suggested children were more successful when their education was not interrupted by moving from one school to another.

Brighton and Hove city councillor Vanessa Brown, chairwoman of the city's Children and Young People's Trust, said: "We have to review the school places every year and plan for the numbers."

The council has predicted an increase of more than 1,000 pupils by 2013 because of general population growth and the proposed developments at the King Alfred centre, Brighton Marina and Preston Barracks.

It said in 2013 there would be an estimated 558 more primary and 492 secondary age children.

Plans have been mooted for a new primary in central Hove, to meet some of the demand from the King Alfred.

The council will receive £8million from Government between 2009 and 2023 for work at primary schools.

It has not yet released detailed plans of which schools will be altered but added that much of the spare capacity in the city is in the schools in east Brighton.

Whitehawk Primary, in Whitehawk Road, Brighton, has more than 200 fewer pupils than its capacity.

The planning includes consideration for secondary schools and education for 14 to 19-year-olds.

The council said it would be lobbying for Government funding to refurbish and rebuild secondaries, which is not currently due until 2016.

It said there was currently enough capacity, with a significant amount spare at Falmer High, in Lewes Road, Brighton, which has 372 unfilled places.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has spoken of his intention to make schooling compulsory to the age of 18. Planning is underway for expansions of Varndean College, Brighton Hove and Sussex Sixth From College and City College Brighton and Hove.

Are you concerned by the possibility of your child's school being merged or changed? Post your comments below.