Figures published last week by the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) blow the debate about the top performing schools in Brighton and Hove wide open.

Based on a simple measure of added value, which anyone can understand, the league table is:

Cardinal Newman +14
Varndean +10
Blatchington Mill +3
Dorothy Stringer +2
National average +1
Longhill -3
Hove Park -9
Patcham -11

Portslade and Falmer are not included as they as not specialist schools.

Cardinal Newman and Varndean are the best city schools and are included in the top ten in East and West Sussex. Argus readers can consult the data for all 53 specialist schools across the two counties on the SSAT website.

I understand Varndean's score would have been +14 if the extra pupils they took from CoMART had not been included.

Middle-class parents seem to want schools which don't add much value, such as Dorothy Stringer, whose 2005 rating was nil.

In other words, schools which improve their results by attracting the most able pupils, rather than those with the best teaching.