Contested schools in Brighton and Hove

These are the Brighton and Hove schools that turned first-choice families away in at least one of the last three years — either because more families named them first than they had places, or because they refused families who named them first anyway. Figures shown are for 2026/27. Demand is not a forecast: an oversubscribed school turns more families away, which is not the same as their appeals succeeding more often.

Appeal success rates for Brighton and Hove

Secondary schools (6)

Each has its own page with a 12-year demand history.

Contested secondary schools in Brighton and Hove, 2026/27
School	Places	First choices	Per place
Cardinal Newman Catholic School	346	484	1.40
Varndean School	279	350	1.25
King's School	171	212	1.24
Dorothy Stringer School	319	290	0.91
Blatchington Mill School	323	252	0.78
Patcham High School	198	145	0.73

Primary schools (20)

Primary schools are listed here as figures rather than pages. Most refusals at the Reception intake are infant class size cases, where a panel can only act on three narrow grounds and fewer than one in ten appeals succeeds — so the honest thing to publish is the data, not a page inviting an appeal.

Contested primary schools in Brighton and Hove, 2026/27
School	Places	First choices	Per place
Peter Gladwin Primary School	30	40	1.33
Balfour Primary School	90	119	1.32
Cottesmore St Mary's Catholic Primary School	60	74	1.23
Carlton Hill Primary School	30	36	1.20
St Bernadette's Catholic Primary School	30	36	1.20
Saltdean Primary School	60	70	1.17
St Andrew's CofE (Aided) Primary School	89	99	1.11
West Hove Infant School	121	130	1.07
Elm Grove Primary School	60	63	1.05
St Luke's Primary School	90	94	1.04
West Blatchington Primary and Nursery School	15	15	—
Bilingual Primary School - Brighton & Hove	89	83	0.93
Our Lady of Lourdes RC School	30	28	0.93
Rudyard Kipling Primary School & Nursery	60	56	0.93
Coombe Road Primary School	26	24	0.92
Westdene Primary School	59	54	0.92
Benfield Primary School	10	9	—
Downs Infant School	90	80	0.89
St Mary's Catholic Primary School	28	25	0.89
St John the Baptist Catholic Primary School	17	14	—

Department for Education, Primary and secondary school applications and offers, school-level file, 2026/27. Appeal outcomes are not published for individual schools — how we source and calculate the figures.