Thousands of people have beenlogging on to an internet site advertising an all-nude girls' prep school in Sussex.

A web site for Willow Grove Park, supposedly in Falmer, Brighton, claims it is the UK's only school where the students go unclothed in the classroom.

Thousands of internet surfers have visited the professionally-designed site and schoolleaders are concerned it sends out a damning message about the county's standards.

Brighton and Hove City Council's spokeswoman for education said: "To people in the know it's clearly fictitious but it has the look of a professional site.

"Personally I find the contents and their implications quite shocking.

"I would be very concerned if people who visited the site took it seriously."

Legal teams had been made aware of the site and had contacted the police.

The spokeswoman said: "We're all upset by this.

"We've been in touch with the police because our legal team believes the matter is quite offensive.

"This is not an issue which we, as a local authority, have any power over but it's obviously indecent and we shall be taking this matter further."

A spokeswoman for Sussex Police said they had passed the council's complaint on to the watchdog Internet Watch Foundation.

The Cambridge-based organisation was formed to try to rid the internet of child pornography but also investigates other complaints about sites.

A spokeswoman said: "People do get upset about some material but it is not necessarily always illegal.

"Sometimes it is offensive rather than illegal."

In the introduction to the school, which claims to charge its 350 pupils aged 11 to 17 fees of £4,680 per term, the site reads: "One of the things which makes Willow Park stand apart from all other schools in the UK is our policy of nudity amongst the students. In the mid-1980s the school was reopened as a naturist school and governed by one of the most influential people within the British naturist movement."