A girl has missed almost two months of lessons due to a dispute with education officials about which school she should attend.

Claire Martin, 11, has been receiving private home tuition in Eastbourne while her father Keith fights to get her instated at her first-choice school.

We told in August how Claire was denied a place at her first preference, Ratton School, as it could not exceed its intake of 216 pupils and was already 11 per cent above capacity.

Instead, Claire was allocated a place at Eastbourne Technology College but Mr Martin turned it down, saying it was even more overcrowded than Ratton, which would harm Claire's learning.

A review and appeal against the Local Education Authority's (LEA) decision to allocate her to Ratton followed.

However, both went against Mr Martin so he took the case to the local government ombudsman, where it now rests.

In the meantime Claire, of Priory Road, Eastbourne, remains without a school seven weeks after the start of term.

Education bosses at East Sussex County Council have tried to resolve the deadlock by offering Claire a place outside her home town at Hailsham Community College, but Mr Martin turned it down as it would involve excessive travelling.

Mr Martin, a governor at St Andrew's Infant School in Eastbourne, said: "It's not right that my daughter should be missing school simply because the LEA has failed in its job to ensure there are enough places."

Claire's case has alerted Eastbourne's Tory MP Nigel Waterson to the overcrowding who has been speaking with education ministers.

He said: "I have been in correspondence with the Secretary of State but have also called for an adjournment debate on the whole subject of secondary school places in Eastbourne.

"There is clearly a problem with the Martins which is part of a wider issue about parental choice over school places in the area."

A spokesman for the county council said he could not comment on individual admissions but admitted Eastbourne Technology College was under pressure.

However, he added the pressure would be eased as the number of children who left this year was more than the number admitted.