PROVISIONAL figures have been released ranking secondary schools for their exam results.

The data, released by the Department for Education, marks student’s progress using the initial Progress 8 and Attainment 8 figures from the latest GCSE results.

Several Colchester schools are celebrating impressive results, including Colchester County High School for Girls, which tops the table.

Students there achieved a Progress 8 score of 1.21, well above the national average and nearly double second ranked Colchester Royal Grammar School which scored 0.62.

The girls’ grammar also came out top by its Attainment 8 score, with its figure of 81.6 well above Essex’s average of 45.9.

The boys’ grammar school’s 78.1 score puts it in second place.

The Gilberd School achieved impressive Progress 8 and Attainment 8 scores of 0.38 and 49.9 respectively, putting the Highwoods school as the top ranked school with non-selective admissions.

Philip Morant was not far behind in fourth place, with a Attainment 8 of 49.3. Its Progress 8 figure was 0.14, above the Essex standard of -0.09.

St Benedict’s, Stanway and Thurstable schools were fifth, sixth and seventh, all achieving average Progress 8 scores.

Overall, two thirds of the schools featured achieved a Progress 8 score above the Essex average.

Coggeshall’s Honywood Community Science School was ranked bottom of the pile in terms of Progress 8 score, with a figure of -0.69 being below average. Its Progress 8 of 42.6 put it fourth from bottom.

St Helena School was second bottom, with a score of -0.56. It also came bottom of the list for its Attainment 8 score, which at 37.9 is well the Essex average.

Brightlingsea’s Colne Community School and College was third from bottom with a Progress 8 score of -0.48. Its Attainment 8 score of 43.4 was the fifth lowest.

Thomas Lord Audley School was next from last with a score of 38. The school’s Progress 8 score of -0.36 puts it in third from last position on this measure.

A Progress 8 score is a type of “value added” measure which means pupils’ results are compared to achievements of other pupils with similar prior attainment.

Attainment 8 measures the achievement of a pupil across eight qualifications including maths and English.

Each individual grade a pupil achieves is assigned a point score, which is then used to calculate a pupil’s Attainment 8 score.

The data used is provisional figures from this summer’s GCSE results.

The Gazette did not include special schools’ data for the comparison.

Gazette:

A table showing the schools in order of Progress 8 score

Visit compare-school-performance.service.gov.uk.