A highly-rated school for deaf children is to close because of a lack of funding.

Ovingdean Hall School has been teaching pupils with severe hearing difficulties for more than 60 years but will close at the end of the summer term.

Pupils, parents and teachers have been told that the school in Greenways, Brighton, will close on July 19.

Ovingdean Hall is a non-maintained special school, meaning it receives funding for children with special needs to attend from across the country.

However changes to government policy have seen more children with special needs being sent to mainstream schools and the number of children at Ovingdean Hall has fallen drop.

The school received outstanding results in its latest Ofsted inspection but does not have the money to continue running next year.

There were hopes that the school would be able to merge with another school for deaf children.

Trustees from Hamilton Lodge School for Deaf Children in Walpole Road, Brighton, had spent months discussing a possible merger until a decision was made that it should not proceed last month, leaving the future of Ovingdean Hall in question.

The 28 pupils - aged ten to 19 - will have to find alternative schools before the end of the summer term.