Hundreds of children have missed out on the secondary school of their choice after almost four children applied for each place at Brighton and Hove's most popular school.

The latest figures were published yesterday as thousands of parents across Sussex found out which secondary their child would join in September.

They showed a total of 1,125 children had Blatchington Mill, in Nevill Road, Hove, as their first, second or third choice – despite only 300 spaces being available.

Blatchington Mill's popularity, revealed a day after an Ofsted inspection report which lowered its rating from good to satisfactory, contrasted with the situation at Portslade Community College, in Chalky Road, Portslade.

Portslade saw its number of preferences slump from 301 to 228 after a year when bound GCSE results were compounded by an "inadequate" ranking by Ofsted.

It only has 139 of its 180 places filled by children who made it one of their choices. A further 38 will be "directed" to the school after missing out on all of their preferences.

There were mixed reactions among families across the city as they discovered whether they had got the place they wanted.

It was the third year Brighton and Hove City Council had used its controversial combination of catchment areas and a lottery decider to allocate places.

Many families were celebrating, as 82% got their first choice school, but others were devastated by the outcome. 11% were allocated their second pick, 3.6% their third but 3.4% got none of their selections.

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