The Argus on February 4 contained an article about high-performing schools. One of these was St Bernadette's Roman Catholic Primary School in Preston Road, Brighton - a predominantly white, middle-class area.

While other schools in the city struggle, this one thrives. Most people in the city will know little of what it means to be Catholic and the city council takes the same view and chooses not to involve itself in ensuring that the admissions criteria for these schools fully serve all Catholics in the area despite the fact that the lion's share of the funding for these schools comes from residents of the city.

I have some sympathy for this as the education authority might suppose that a school run by Catholics would make sure it is for all Catholics.

The council, however, has never referred a single schools admissions criteria to the national adjudicator while other authorities are far more scrupulous.

In the admissions pecking order for some Catholic schools, there is preference for Roman Catholics over Catholics from Eastern Europe or the Middle East, despite the fact that they are all in Full Communion with the See of Rome and the Catholic education service rules against such discrimination.

This occurs because the admission rules will only accept a letter of support from the local Roman Catholic priest.

Some Catholics are discriminated against based on their date of baptism despite the basic Catholic tenet of one baptism for all.

Most alarming of all is that two schools actively discriminate in favour of children of parishioners who have lived in the area the longest.

The national admissions adjudicator has ruled that this is unfair on a number of occasions as it acts against people who are more transient such as those living in the rented sector, recently moved to the area or travellers.

These admissions rules in effect stack the cards in favour of schools receiving a population comprised of the children of middle-class homeowners.

While the city education authority has been busying itself ensuring that the non-denomination schools have fair and transparent admissions rules, it has washed its hands of those in the religious sector.

It is time it took more of an interest in church-aided schools and how they serve the community rather than patting itself on the back for having a school mentioned in parliament.

The present situation is that the authority is not willing to have any of these rules tested with the adjudicator and any parents wishing to involve the adjudicator have to do so within six weeks of the rules being set.

-Chris Payne, Brighton