In Jenny Legg's interesting article (The Argus, March 10), we see Varndean seems to be the most popular school with a pupil's chance of 1:4.6 of being admitted. Dorothy Stringer comes next with a 1:1.35 chance. Then Blatchington Mill with 1:1.3 and finally Cardinal Newman with a 1:1.1 score.

However, current research being undertaken at two well-known London colleges on alternative league tables of GCSE achievement based on what may be expected of schools as the result of their social class intake show marked differences in score and ranking.

While Varndean, for example, is the most popular school in parents' estimation, it is only fourth in the colleges' alternative league table.

On the other hand, in Jenny Legg's table, Cardinal Newman comes fourth but with the colleges' social class criterion of expectation, it comes out top.

This would suggest Cardinal Newman, taking its social class recruitment into consideration, is achieving more than Varndean, despite being much less popular.

There are other differences, not so marked, but the colleges' results suggest not one of the secondary schools appears to be achieving as much as it should on the social class "material" they have available.

This ongoing research raises interesting questions as to what parents should look for in assessing a school's quality, based on its available "material" and what academic results may reasonably be expected.

-RG Jenkins, Hove