Sussex schools have experienced mixed fortunes in newly-published league tables based on tests taken by 14-year-olds.

West Sussex local education authority was placed 35th out of 149 LEAs for the performances of pupils in English, maths and science key stage three exams.

East Sussex came 65th and Brighton and Hove 94th in the tables, the first time National Curriculum scores for 14-year-olds have been compared in this way.

An overall score was put together by combining each school's rank and a calculation of how much each school had helped pupils aged from 11 to 14 improve.

Other figures published in the tables revealed how many pupils attended each school, how many took the tests and how many were absent.

Top of the pile for East Sussex was Claverham Community College in Battle, where 214 pupils took the tests and which achieved a figure of 102 for helping pupils improve.

This put the college in the top quarter of schools in the UK.

Principal Richard Pitts said: "I'm not surprised our key stage three results are coming out very favourably. We have embraced the national strategy for key stage three and are very pleased with the work that has gone on."

Second was Uckfield Community College.

At the bottom of the list was The Causeway School in Eastbourne, where the percentage of pupils absent from tests reached double figures, placing it 26th in East Sussex.

In Brighton and Hove, Blatchington Mill in Hove was first. Last, in tenth, was East Brighton College of Media Arts, with the percentage of those achieving Government-set standard grades just scraping 30 per cent.

For West Sussex, Holy Trinity Church of England Secondary School in Crawley came top with 95 per cent of exam-takers achieving the desired level in English and a low level of students missing tests completely.

Holy Trinity, along with second-placed Davison Church of England High School for Girls in Worthing, both made it into the top quarter of schools in the country.

Last of the 36 schools and colleges in the area was Boundstone Community College in Lancing.

Wednesday December 17, 2003