Parents and children in protest over allocation of Horsham school places

They stood outside the parish council’s office at Beeson House chanting and waving banners.

The demo followed the recent allocation of secondary school places which has left some children facing a 32-mile round trip to school in Burgess Hill.

Others have been allocated places at Horsham’s all-girls school Millais, against their wishes.

A petition calling for Millais to switch to a co-educational school now has more than 600 signatures.

However, Millais headteacher Dr Alison Lodwick has spoken out against admitting boys to the school and West Sussex County Council says there are no plans to turn it co-educational.

Local parent Anna McLauchlan said: “The plight of Southwater's schoolchildren demands immediate action from West Sussex County Council. The alarming situation of secondary school allocations has left many students without a suitable school, forcing some to attend one 16 miles away or one that was not even their preference.

"It's time for WSCC to take responsibility for their failure to foresee this issue and prioritise finding swift solutions. Why put children through the charade of visiting catchment schools and others if they aren't even viable options?

"Every child deserves a choice, and WSCC must act decisively to rectify this situation without delay.”

A parent of one of the boy pupils now facing having to go to Burgess Hill said that comments made by Dr Lodwick “have failed to recognise the profound impact on boys of being displaced as a result of not enough places being made available to them within the local area, and this as a direct result of Millais being undersubscribed.“Whilst I agree there is some research that girls may perform better academically within single sex schools, does she feel this should be at the detriment to boys receiving an education within the local area?”

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They added: “If Millais, and therefore single sex education was as popular as the comments suggest, than how can the undersubscription be explained? It would indicate that actually, within our local area, academic success is not the only aspect of education that is important to parents.“Millais is ultimately a WSCC maintained school and I feel needs to reflect the needs of the local community.

"Regardless of issue of single vs co-ed, the situation is that Millais now needs to review their place within the wider context of the Horsham schools offering. To balance numbers and ensure taxpayer funding is not being wasted on empty school places at Millais, this would suggest a move to co-ed would positively benefit the local area and enable both boys and girls to attend local schools.”