SCHOOLCHILDREN are finding out today if they’ve got into their chosen secondary school.

In Brighton and Hove 84 per cent of children have been offered their first place – two per cent more than last year.

However 147 children were not offered any of their three choices a rise of 1.5% on last year.

These included 57 pupils in the Dorothy Stringer / Varndean catchment area.

Chairman of Brighton and Hove City Council’s children, young people and skills committee, Councillor Dan Chapman said: “I am delighted to see a rise in the numbers of parents offered their first preference school. Equally, I feel for parents who weren’t offered any of their preferences.

“The council has a legal duty to have enough school places available across the city as a whole for all residents who request one.

“We have always tried our best to ensure parents are offered a place in their catchment school if they apply for one. However, we have never been able to guarantee this.

“Dorothy Stringer and Varndean have both taken their full number of students this year. They are operating at the limits of their capacity, and expanding them further is simply not practical.

“Parents who aren’t offered a catchment area place will automatically be entered in the reallocation pool for their first preference school if a place become available.”

The council said they hope the addition of a new city centre secondary school in 2018 would improve the chances of children getting their preferences.

In East Sussex 85% of children got into their first choice school.