Hopes Britain's first state-funded Montessori primary school could be built in Sussex have been dashed.

Teachers from the private Montessori School in Stanford Avenue, Brighton, wanted to build a £6 million school at Redhill Close, Westdene, Brighton.

It would have been a voluntary aided primary school, with 220 pupils aged three to 11.

Parents of children attending the old school supported the bid, saying they wanted their children to learn in the Montessori tradition, which allows pupils to develop at their own pace.

The project took a blow on Wednesday when the independent Schools Adjudicator rejected it, saying to succeed, the founders needed to raise £600,000, ten per cent of the building cost.

Daisy Cockburn, headteacher at the Stanford Avenue school, said: "We are not giving up this fight, not only for our own school but for other schools or planned schools in a similar position.

"We have huge support locally and nationally for this pioneering project. We feel the new school would be a real asset to Westdene and the city as well as education in the country."

Pippa Edwards, who worked on the bid, said: "To raise the £600,000 we were going to have to take out a loan. We had several sources who would have supplied it but they couldn't transfer the funds until we had confirmation the school would be built."

She said parents and teachers were angry the bid had been rejected.

She is now considering a fund-raising campaign.

In his decision, adjudicator Richard Lindley said other schools had objected to the bid because it would reduce their pupil numbers.

He was also concerned about the school's proposed admissions policy and a lack of funding for playing fields.

He wrote: "The proposal to establish a maintained Montessori primary school in Brighton and Hove is attractive in that it would offer greater diversity of provision for the city and wider area, and fulfil the aspirations of some parents."

But he could not approve the school without the ten per cent contribution.

The proposal was initially refused by Brighton and Hove City Council's School Organisation Committee, which said the idea of taking a loan for the school's £600,000 contribution to construction costs was a "high risk strategy".