Governors of a city school have warned that Brighton and Hove's admissions system will chronically deprive them of pupils and cause a lack of funding and job cuts.

The stark warning was issued yesterday as 2,355 pupils across the city discovered which state secondary school the system, which includes a controversial lottery aspect, had allocated them.

It also coincided with announcements from independent schools around Brighton and Hove that they were enjoying a surge of interest for places, which some linked to disenchantment with the lottery system.

Brighton College said it would be changing its structure to admit more pupils and Lancing College said it would have an extra class starting this September.

Brighton and Hove High School for Girls said it was staging extra entrance exams and Roedean reported increased inquiries.

The governors of Patcham High in Ladies Mile Road, Brighton, demanded changes to the admissions system as they faced the prospect of starting the next school year with as many as 30 too few pupils.

In a letter to Brighton and Hove City Council, they spoke of their concern that the catchment a r e a s , introduced last year, l e f t P a t c h a m with only 178 eligible pupils to fill 210 places. Headteacher Paula Sargent said the shortfall could set back the excellent progress the school had made in the past 18 months, winning praise from Ofsted a year after being issued with a damning inspection report.

She said: "It will affect the running of the school. It will affect our finances and our income. Our task here is not being made easier."

Every school receives additional funds from the Government per pupil.

The lost funds for Patcham would add up to tens of thousands.

The governors warned the shortfall would eventually lead to staff cuts and morale problems. They describe the system as causing systematic and chronic under-subscription at the school.

The council said it had ensured that the school's roll was as full as possible.

Figures released yesterday showed Patcham had been allocated 204 pupils.

Mrs Sargent said 48 of them had failed to win places at any of the schools listed on their own application forms.

She said some had been allocated to Patcham despite living on the far side of the city in West Hove or Portslade, and the school was bracing itself for successful appeals to result in several being withdrawn.

One Portslade mother told The Argus she was planning an appeal after her daughter was allocated to Patcham.

Pauline Patrick, 48, of Mile Oak Road, said she had not named Portslade Community College, the catchment school for her area, as one of her three preferences for her daughter Chloe, 11, because of a previous bad experience with the school.

She said: "Because I didn't put it down, I ended up in a lottery for anyw h e r e and they've given us Patcham. She will have to take two buses to get there and two to get back, taking over an hour each way. I'm not going to let that happen.

I'd rather keep her out of school."

Several more families are expected to desert Patcham to turn towards independent schools.

Parents have questioned why the council has been pushing ahead with a £2.5 million extension to create more places at Varndean School, in Balfour Road, in the neighbouring catchment, when there are spare places at Patcham, around a mile away.

Patcham's governors, along with others across the city, criticised the council for asking them to respond to a consultation about the school admissions system by last Friday, before the full outcome of yesterday's results was known. The council said it had been forced to do so by a statutory requirement.

Despite the various criticisms, the lottery school admissions system was branded a "soaring success" by its creators.

The council said the electronic ballot, coupled with a network of new catchment areas, had achieved its targets of getting more pupils into a local school, stopping people moving closer to popular secondaries and giving parents better knowledge of where their children are likely to be placed.

The council said every child living in the catchment areas for Patcham High, Longhill High, Falmer High and Portslade Community College who had specified a preference for the schools had been allocated a place at them, unless they had been lucky enough to achieve a place at another school they had put down as a higher preference.

A total of 728 children had their places decided by the lottery, mostly to rule on who won places at Dorothy Stringer and Blatchington Mill.

Councillor Vanessa Brown, the chairwoman of the city's Children and Young People's Trust, said: "This is a clear improvement given that we do not have enough places to meet demand at our most popular schools."

Despite the council's positive response the number of pupils getting places at the school their parents listed as their first choice fell from 1,871 last year to 1,843, a drop from 83.7 per cent to 78.2 per cent. The number gaining a place at any of the three priority schools on their application rose from 2,087 to 2,272, a jump from 93.3 per cent last year to a record high of 96.5 per cent.

Dorothy Stringer headteacher Trevor Allen said regardless of whether the lottery had worked, the council needed to address a wider issue.

He said: "The lottery is a sticking plaster. What people want is good schools across the city. Smaller classes are the best way to improve education.

This city need a new school and those in power need start fighting for one."

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