CHRISTCHURCH schools for Christchurch children - that's the message from borough councillors to Dorset education chiefs reviewing admissions policies to the town's three secondary schools.

The current system, unchanged for 30 years since the pre-comprehensive era when Christchurch was still in Hampshire, allows hundreds of pupils from outside the borough to attend Highcliffe and Twynham schools while local children are turned away.

And a furious row erupted earlier this year when 40 children graduating from Mudeford Junior School were refused places at Highcliffe in favour of pupils from as far afield as Brockenhurst and Sway.

Now Christchurch council is echoing the call made by parents at a public meeting in Highcliffe last week that priority for places at Christchurch schools should be given to children living in the borough.

On Tuesday night councillors voted overwhelmingly to give the borough's backing to a radical redrafting of the current catchment areas which, if approved by Dorset County Council's cabinet in December, would give families in Christchurch preference for places at any of the three schools from September 2006.

Council leader Cllr Alan Griffiths said the present arrangements were 'fundamentally unfair' and other options suggested by the county council were only tinkering with the problem.

Cllr David Fox said: "The Christchurch schools for Christchurch children dictum is appealing for its simplicity and logic."

Ward councillors John Freeman and John Campbell wanted safeguards for the viability of the Grange School at Somerford fearing 'social prejudice' would lead to pupils from its traditional catchment areas seeking places at other schools in the borough.

Councillors baulked at making a special case for the Grange, saying the efforts of new head Chris Russell and its acquired sports college status and funding would make the Somer-ford school popular with parents and potential pupils as Twynham and Highcliffe.

First published: October 28