Brighton & Hove City Council uses a catchment area system with random allocation being used as the tie breaker in each admission criteria in the event of oversubscription.
Cardinal Newman Catholic School, King’s School, Brighton Aldridge Community Academy (BACA), and Portslade Aldridge Community Academy (PACA) each have their own admission criteria. Visit our school admissions page or the schools’ websites for details.
If a school is oversubscribed, after the admission of pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) where the school is named in the Plan, priority for admission will be given to those children who meet the oversubscription criteria set out below.
The oversubscription criteria are applied in the context of an equal preference system as required by the School Admissions Code. They are:
Within all these priorities, the tie break is random allocation. (note f)
The catchment areas are set out in the catchment area map below. There is information below (note h) about which postcodes/addresses are in each of the catchment areas.
Parents must make a separate application for any transfer from nursery to primary school and from infant to junior school.
If a school is oversubscribed, after the admission of pupils with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) where the school is named in the Plan, priority for admission will be given to those children who meet the oversubscription criteria set out below.
The oversubscription criteria are applied in the context of an equal preference system as required by the Admissions Code. They are:
Within all these criteria, the tie break is home to school distance, which will be measured by the shortest route from the child’s home to the nearest of the school’s gates.
This will be measured by specialist computer software based on Ordnance Survey data. It measures using the road network supplied by Ordnance Survey and some other public rights of way, which are paved and lit.
Routes across public parks or open spaces will not be accepted.
When using roads for measurement purposes, the computer measures along the middle of the road. It measures from the address point in the property to the nearest point on the road network and from there to the nearest of the school’s gates to the child’s home.
No other measurement systems will be used for school admissions decisions.
Where the home addresses of 2 or more pupils are an equal distance from the school (such as 2 children living in the same block of flats) and only one place remains available at the school in question, the place will be allocated randomly by computer to one of these pupils. (note f)
If an application is returned after the closing date without good reason, it will be considered after all the on-time preferences have been dealt with and school places allocated to them.
If there's a good reason for the application being late, such as a recent house move to Brighton & Hove, it will be considered as on-time if it's:
Applications submitted after the closing date listing revised preferences will only be considered from mid-June onwards unless there has been a house move. This is to ensure that parents and carers who do this do not gain an unfair advantage over others by having the opportunity to list more than 4 preferences.
The school admissions team will allocate school places using the address at which a child lives on the closing date for applications 31 October (Secondary) or 15 January (Infant, Primary and Junior) although late changes of address will be considered if proof of address is received by 22 January (Secondary) or 8 March (Infant, Primary and Junior).
Only one address can be used for admission purposes, and this will be taken as the address where the child spends most of their time.
Where a child’s time is divided between addresses, parents must agree which address they would like to be considered for the purposes of the application.
In the event of a dispute, in the absence of a relevant court order, the admission authority will make a judgment about which address applies. This will usually be the address where the child is registered with a doctor.
Children start school in the school year during which they have their fifth birthday. Children are allowed to start full-time in September or can defer admission or attend part-time until they reach compulsory school age.
Children become compulsory school age in the term after their fifth birthday.
Children whose fifth birthday falls between 1 September and 31 December may defer or attend part time until January.
Children whose fifth birthday falls between 1 January and 31 March can defer admission or attend part time until the start of the summer term.
Children whose fifth birthday is between 1 April and 31 August don’t become compulsory school age until the following September, however, they can also defer admission or attend part time until the start of the summer term.
Where a place is deferred it will not be given to another child provided the place is taken up by the beginning of the school term following the child’s fifth birthday and within the school year that the offer was made.
Parents can request for a ‘summer born’ child to start school outside of their normal age group, and be admitted to reception rather than Year 1 as detailed below.
Parents may request that their child is admitted outside their normal age group, for example, if the child is gifted and talented or has experienced problems such as ill health.
To do so, parents should include a request with their application, specifying why admission outside the normal age group is being requested and which year group they wish their child to be admitted.
Applications should be accompanied with the additional form to request that the child is educated out of year group. Reasons for the request and any evidence to support the case should be included with the form.
Evidence could include:
The admission authority will consider each case on its merits, taking into account the child’s best interests and either agree or refuse the request on that basis.
Where the council is the admission authority, the views of the headteacher of each school will be sought before a decision is taken.
Parents will be made aware of the outcome of the request for admission out of year group before national offer day and reasons for the decision will be shared with them.
Late requests will be considered up until 8 March (Infant, Primary and Junior) or 22 January (Secondary) if there's good reason why the request could not be made by the closing date for applications.
Requests made after this date will not be considered until after national offer day.
Brighton & Hove City Council holds waiting lists for community schools, and Bilingual Primary School. Pupils who have not been offered one of these schools as their first preference will have their name added to the waiting list for this school.
Parents can request that their child’s name is also added to the waiting list for their second and/or third preference school by contacting the school admissions team.
Waiting lists are held until 31 December at which point pupils’ names will be removed from the list. Parents can keep their child’s name on the waiting list for the following term by contacting the admissions team in the last week of each term to request this.
Pupils are added to waiting lists according to the oversubscription priorities listed above, and consequently a pupil’s name can move down the list as well as up.
Where the home addresses of 2 or more pupils at the top of the waiting list are an equal distance from the school (such as 2 children living in the same block of flats) and only one place has become available at the school in question, the place will be allocated randomly by computer to one of these pupils (note f).
Waiting lists for secondary schools are called reallocation pools. Each time the council can offer a place, or places at a school with a reallocation pool, the list is re-randomised within each criteria and the place(s) allocated to the child(ren) at the top of the list.
Late applicants will also be added to waiting lists as soon as possible after they apply. Late changes of preference (revised applications) will be added to the waiting list for the new preference as soon as possible from mid-June onwards. The pupil’s name will be removed from the waiting list for the previous preferences.
A 'looked after child' is a child who is (i) in the care of a local authority, or (ii) being provided with accommodation by a local authority in the exercise of their social services functions at the time of making an application to a school.
Previously looked after children are such children who were adopted (or subject to child arrangements orders or special guardianship orders) immediately following having been looked after and those children who appear (to the council) to have been in state care outside of England and ceased to be in state care as a result of being adopted.
A child is regarded as having been in state care outside of England if they were in the care of or were accommodated by a public authority, a religious organisation, or any other provider of care whose sole or main purpose is to benefit society.
This criteria applies to pupils with a specific need that can only be met by one school rather than any other. This could include medical or social reasons that make it essential for the child to attend a particular school.
Independent supporting information (this could be a report or an assessment for example that specifies why the child’s needs can only be met at one school) must be provided from a professional, for example a doctor, consultant, mental health practitioner, social worker or other professionals working with the family which makes a compelling case as to why the child’s needs can only be met at the preferred school and no other.
A medical condition or diagnosis in itself will not automatically result in priority being given.
Advice will be sought from a panel of relevant professionals where necessary to determine whether or not the evidence provided is sufficiently compelling to qualify under this category.
For the purposes of the school admissions process, children are siblings if they share the same main address and live as part of the same household.
A sibling link will apply if the sibling will be attending the school in September 2026.
Where separate junior and infant schools are linked (see linked Infant/Junior school below), the sibling link will apply across both linked schools, the sibling may be at either school and may be older or younger.
If 2 children, of whom one is due to start junior school and the other infant school in the same September, the junior school child’s allocation will be done first and a sibling link will count for the infant child.
A sibling link is only taken into account if children live at the same main address and the sibling has already been allocated a place at the school.
Twins or multiple births do not qualify for the sibling link unless one child has already been offered a place.
Where a sibling attends a nursery class on the same school site, or a sixth form, it will not be counted as a link for admissions purposes.
For areas of the city where the catchment area school(s) have changed and a child is already attending a catchment area school, the sibling link will remain valid until the older sibling has left the school even though the address is no longer in that school’s catchment area.
Children will be considered under this criteria if they are eligible for free school meals on the closing date for applications or on the date the application is submitted if it's late or outside the main admission round.
The city average will be taken as 30%. The number of places available at each school under criteria 4 will be calculated by applying the city average to the school’s PAN and subtracting the number of places offered to pupils eligible for free school meals under criteria 1,2, and 3.
The number of places available under criteria 5 will be calculated by applying the city average to the schools PAN and subtracting the number of places offered to pupils eligible for free school meals under criteria 1,2,3, and 4.
Children who are attending or have been offered a place at an infant school in the list below will have priority for places at the linked junior school, providing the allocation took place by 8 March in the admission year.
Downs Infant - Downs Junior
Patcham Infant - Patcham Junior
Stanford Infant - Stanford Junior
West Hove Infant Portland Road – Hove Junior Portland Road
West Hove Infant Holland Road - Hove Junior Holland Road
There is no link between West Hove Infant Holland Road and Hove Junior Portland Road, or between West Hove Infant Portland Road and Hove Junior Holland Road.
Where the random allocation tiebreak is used, every preference is assigned a unique random number by computer. The computer will then list the pupils using this random number. This computer allocation process is audited and overseen by a senior council officer not part of the school admissions team.
Places will be offered up to 5% of a school’s PAN to pupils living in a single school catchment area i.e. BACA, PACA, Patcham or Longhill.
This criterion will not be applied to a preference for Patcham where the home address is in the Patcham catchment area or Longhill where the home address is in the Longhill catchment area.
| BN41 2 | BN41 1A |
| BN41 1DY | BN41 1D except Y |
| BN41 1FX | BN41 1E |
| BN41 1GR, S, T & U | BN41 1G except R, S, T & U |
| BN41 1LD, E, F, G & H | BN41 1H |
| BN41 1N | BN41 1L except D, E, |
| BN41 1PS | F, G, H |
| BN41 1RX | BN41 1OH |
| BN41 1S | BN41 1PB |
| BN41 1T | Part of BN41 1PH |
| BN41 1UA, B, Q | BN41 1UY |
| BN41 1WY | BN41 1WA, B, E & R |
| BN41 1X | |
| BN41 1Y |
| BN2 4 | BN1 9P |
| BN1 9HW | BN1 9Q except B |
| BN1 9HX | BN1 9R |
| BN1 9HY | BN1 9S |
| BN1 9J except S | BN1 9B except A,W,X & Z |
BN3
BN1 2
BN1 3*
*Except BN1 3TG (Westcombe) BN1 3TL (Prestonville Road north of the railway line - Nos 1-28)
BN1 3TS (York Villas)
BN1 3TT (York Grove)
BN1 3TU (New England Road)
BN1 3TF/3TX (Belmont)
BN1 3TH (Russell Crescent)
BN1 3UG (Prestonville Court)
These are in the DS/Varndean catchment area.
| BN1 5AZ | BN1 9B,X,Y,Z |
| BN1 5E,F,G,H | BN1 9D |
| BN1 5JD (even numbers only), | BN1 9E |
| BN! 5JE (even numbers only) | BN1 5BQ |
| BN1 5JH, JJ, JP, JX | BN1 9G |
| BN1 5L except A, B, D, E, | BN1 9HT |
| R, S, W | BN1 9HU |
| BN1 8 | BN1 9JS |
| BN1 9A | BN1 9QB |
| BN1 9BA | BN1 9TN |
Addresses in BN1 5JD and BN1 5JE (Tongdean Lane) cross the boundary between the catchment area for Dorothy Stringer/Varndean and the area for Patcham High: Odd numbers are in the area for Dorothy Stringer/Varndean. Even numbers are in the area for Patcham High.
The part of Tongdean Lane which is east of the railway line (ie Windsor Court BN1 5JS and Manhattan Court BN1 6XZ) is in the catchment area for Dorothy Stringer/Varndean.
| BN1 1 | BN1 6 |
| BN1 3TG (Westcombe) | BN1 7 |
| BN1 3TL (Prestonville Road north of the railway line - Nos 1-28) | BN2 0 except Y |
| BN1 3TS (York Villas) | BN2 3 |
| BN1 3TT (York Grove) | BN2 5DT & some of Z** |
| BN1 3TU (New England Rd) | BN2 5ET & some of F, H & L** |
| BN1 3TF / X (Belmont) | BN2 5F except A, B & G** |
| BN1 3TH (Russell Crescent) | BN2 5G except G, H & J** |
| BN1 3UG (Prestonville Court) | BN2 5H except A** |
| BN1 4 | BN2 5L except J** |
| BN1 5JS | BN2 5N except A, B & S** |
| BN1 5A except Z | BN2 5P except some of A & B** |
| BN1 5B, D, N, P, R, S, T | BN2 5Q** |
| BN1 5JB, JD (odd nos only), | BN2 5RS** |
| JE (odd nos only), JF, JG, JL, JN | BN2 5ZG & J** |
| BN1 5LA, B, D, E, R, S, W | BN2 9 |
Addresses in BN1 5JD and BN1 5JE (Tongdean Lane) cross the boundary between the catchment area for Dorothy Stringer/Varndean and the area for Patcham High: Odd numbers are in the area for Dorothy Stringer/Varndean. Even numbers are in the area for Patcham High.
The part of Tongdean Lane which is east of the railway line (ie Windsor Court BN1 5JS and Manhattan Court BN1 6XZ) is in the catchment area for Dorothy Stringer/Varndean.
Addresses in BN2 5DZ, BN2 5EF, BN2 5EH, BN2 5EL and BN2 5PA cross the boundary between the catchment area for Longhill and the area for Varndean/Dorothy Stringer:
BN2 5DZ/BN2 5EF (Manor Way)- even numbers 2-34 are in the Varndean/DS area.
All odd numbers and evens from 36 onwards are in the Longhill area. BN2 5EH/BN2 5EL (Manor Hill) - odd numbers are in the Longhill area. Even numbers are in the Dorothy Stringer/Varndean area.
BN2 5PA (odd numbers in Wilson Avenue)- 1, 3, 5, 7 and 11 are in the Longhill area. 13 upwards are in the Dorothy Stringer/Varndean area.
NB: addresses on the eastern side of Wilson Avenue (BN2 5PB) are all in the Longhill area.
| BN2 0Y | BN2 5R except S** |
| BN2 1** | BN2 5S |
| BN2 5A** | BN2 5T |
| BN2 5B** | BN2 5U |
| BN2 5D except T & some of Z** | BN2 5W |
| BN2 5E except T & some of F, H & L** | BN2 5X |
| BN2 5FA, B & G** | BN2 5Y** |
| BN2 5GG, H & J** | BN2 5Z except G & J** |
| BN2 5HA** | BN2 6 |
| BN2 5J** | BN2 7 |
|
BN2 5LJ** BN2 5NA, B & S** |
BN2 8 |
| Some of BN2 5PA & B** |
Addresses in BN2 5DZ, BN2 5EF, BN2 5EH, BN2 5EL and BN2 5PA cross the boundary between the catchment area for Longhill and the area for Varndean/Dorothy Stringer.
BN2 5DZ/BN2 5EF (Manor Way)- even numbers 2-34 are in the Varndean/DS area.
All odd numbers and evens from 36 onwards are in the Longhill area.
BN2 5EH/BN2 5EL (Manor Hill) - odd numbers are in the Longhill area. Even numbers are in the Dorothy Stringer/Varndean area.
BN2 5PA (odd numbers in Wilson Avenue)- 1, 3, 5, 7 and 11 are in the Longhill area. 13 upwards are in the Dorothy Stringer/Varndean area.
NB: addresses on the eastern side of Wilson Avenue (BN2 5PB) are all in the Longhill area.
**Addresses in these areas were in different catchment areas for 2025 to 2026.