Fewer Brighton and Hove children accepted into first-choice school

Fewer children in Brighton and Hove got into their first-choice school this year, new figures show.

In Brighton and Hove, 4,354 applications were submitted for places in primary and secondary schools for the upcoming academic year.

Of these, 84 per cent received their first preference – a fall on last year, when 88 per cent were successful.

Across England 83 per cent of secondary and 93 per cent of primary pupils got into the school they wanted, a minor improvement on last year.

If elected, Labour said it intends to abolish private schools' charitable status, which the Conservatives have warned would force them to increase fees, prompting fears state schools would be overwhelmed by former private school pupils.

Analysis by the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies suggests this is unlikely to happen due to declining class sizes and a fall in the birth rate.

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The IFS estimates adding VAT to private school fees could cause a three to seven per cent reduction in private school attendance – about 17,000 to 40,000 children.

However, state school pupil numbers across England are due to decline by an expected drop of more than 625,000 between 2023 and 2030 – only slightly below the total number of private school pupils.

The figures showed 65,447 pupils across England were offered a place in a different local authority to where they lived – this included 81 pupils in ​Brighton and Hove.