School admissions lotteries can be a useful way of preventing middle-class families dominating the best secondaries, an education watchdog said yesterday.

Lotteries, or ballots where pupils are randomly allocated places at top schools, are likely to be deeply unpopular with articulate parents, but they can operate as a good tie-breaker in allocating places in oversubscribed schools, according to Philip Hunter, the Chief Schools Adjudicator.

He added that councils must act to prevent the most sought-after schools taking pupils from more affluent backgrounds who are “easier to teach”.

Dr Hunter’s remarks followed a row over plans to introduce admissions lotteries in Brighton to give poorer families a better chance of getting into the best schools.

His annual report, published today, shows that the row over oversubscribed schools in Brighton sparked a quarter of all parental complaints that he received this year. However, he rejected them.

About 50 of the 222 parents who complained were concerned about the situation in Brighton.

Dr Hunter acknowledged that these issues were “difficult to address” and emphasised that solutions would vary across the country. “Some schools are situated in areas with a high proportion of privileged families,” he said. “These schools may produce very good results and become popular. They can cream off children from neighbouring areas, sometimes leaving schools in those areas with a disproportionate number of children from deprived families.

“Clearly, the best way to enhance parental choice is to improve unpopular schools,” he added. “In many areas, however, other strategies must also be employed. They are likely to be highly contentious, many of them deeply unpopular with groups of articulate parents.”

This was the first year that parents could object to any of a school’s admissions criteria. Other parents were unhappy about catchment areas or the way their local schools prioritised which pupils it would take.

Since last year schools are no longer allowed to show a preference for children on the basis of what school they had chosen first, or the occupational, financial or marital status of their parents. However, they can still give priority to children whose siblings are already at the school, or choose by lottery if they wish.

The report said that 16 schools had been forced to give places to children in care, who are legally given priority over all other pupils under the School Admissions Code. Some local authorities had difficulty coping with large numbers of children travelling into and out of their boroughs to attend school. But the report said that admission forums, involving local authorities, governors, parents and head teachers, now had the power to promote community cohesion.

The report added: “Adjudicators are aware that it is often impossible to gain full support from parents and communities when unpopular but necessary decisions have to be taken.”

Six schools were directed to take hard-to-place pupils, as a result of ten objections.

Dr Hunter said schools do find ways of selecting the easier-to-teach children. “It is not deliberate, it just happens.”

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