The Argus can today reveal the biggest losers of Brighton and Hove's secondary school admissions lottery as the deadline for appeals looms.

A total of 83 children missed out on places at any of the schools they wanted.

Each has been "directed" by Brighton and Hove City Council to one of two schools left with spare places.

In many cases this has left them facing round trips of more than 12 miles to get to school each day.

A total of 23 will have to travel from Portslade to Patcham High and one faces a daily trip from Saltdean to Falmer High.

Both schools are in the north of Brighton and feature close to the bottom of academic league tables.

Parents have spoken of their anger at the situation.

Pauline Patrick, whose 11-year-old daughter Chloe, faces a trip from Mile Oak Road, Portslade, to Patcham, said: "How can the council claim this system has been a success when so many people have been told they have to travel across the city to a school they didn't choose?"

The figures also show nine children were directed out of the "golden catchment" for Dorothy Stringer and Varndean schools, despite a £2.5 million extension being built at the latter.

The figures have been obtained by The Argus despite the council repeatedly refusing to release them.

Councillors will this afternoon vote at a meeting of the children, families and schools committee on whether to keep the same admissions system in place next year.

Officials have recommended they stay with the catchment areas and lottery tie-breaker used to allocate secondary school places for the first time this year.

Many families were delighted with the outcome of the system, which the council designed to make it easier for children to get a place at their nearest school.

Hundreds of others were angry they missed out on the schools they wanted because they were in a different catchment area or had been unlucky in the lottery.

Patcham High's headteacher, Paula Sargent, warned her school faces a considerable financial shortfall because its pupil numbers will be hit by the new system.

It has prepared for a falling roll in expectation the families in Portslade and Hove will appeal to get different school places.

Mrs Sargent said the school was considering applying to the Office of the Schools Adjudicator to try to force changes.

She said: "We are expecting pupils from a far away and who attend 33 different primary schools. How can we be expected to build effective links in that situation?"

The council said people had only been directed if they did not put their catchment school as a one of their three preference.

Many parents, particularly in Portslade, Rottingdean and east Brighton, said the situation was unfair because they did not want their child to go to their catchment school and had deliberately not chosen it.

Parents have been warned they need to make any appeals before the deadline on March 21.

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