Hundreds of pupils are missing out on places at Brighton and Hoves most popular schools while the least popular struggle to make up numbers.

Figures released to The Argus reveal that while some schools in the city were oversubscribed, others were left short.

Dorothy Stringer School in Loder Road, Brighton, was the most popular school for Year 7 places this September. A total of 465 pupils listed the school as their first choice for the 308 places available.

Blatchington Mill School in Hove had 385 first preference applicants for 300 places and Longhill School in Rottingdean had 302 applicants for 240 places.

Meanwhile, at the other end of the scale, Falmer High School had just 80 pupils listing the school as their first choice for one of 211 places. A total of 133 pupils applied to Patcham High School for 210 places, Hove Park had 224 applicants for 300 places and Varndean School, which scored the highest GCSE results last summer had just 184 first preference applicants for 240 places.

Mick Landmann, of Freshfield Road, Queens Park, hoped his daughter Charlotte, 11, would go to Dorothy Stringer School but has been allocated a place at Falmer.

He said: "The huge difference between Varndean and Dorothy Stringer was surprising but we always knew Dorothy Stringer was very popular. All the schools have different strengths and weaknesses.

Pretending they are all just as good for all our children is ridiculous. They are not all the same and there will always be some hierarchy."

James Simister is the spokesman for Brighton and Hove Schools Action Group, which campaigned against changing school admission criteria and lobbied the council for better schools throughout the city earlier this year.

He said: "We realise it will take time to improve all the schools to the point where parents are happy to let their child go to any of them so in the short term the council should allow the popular schools to take on more pupils."

He said recent proposals to change to admissions criteria highlighted Dorothy Stringer and Blatchington Mill as good schools which could explain their exceptional popularity this year.

Councillor Pat Hawkes, who is responsible for schools in Brighton and Hove, said the figures merely reflected current fashions and did not indicate a problem with some of the citys schools.

She said: "A lot of it is down to reputation. If parents visited all the schools when making their choice they would see they are all doing well."

Mr Stuart McLaughlin, headteacher of Falmer High School, said: "Parents who dont know us believe the playground gossip but we have made tremendous improvements. Our exam results were up a lot last summer."