A SCHOOL in Hexham is celebrating the progress its pupils have made during their time there.

Queen Elizabeth High School has been ranked third in the North-East in the key performance measure of Progress 8 in the Department for Education’s provisional secondary and high school performance tables for 2018.

Of the 60 schools nationally with year groups of 300 or more students, the school ranked second.

Traditionally, schools were judged on their GCSE grades only, but changes to the rankings include measuring both Attainment 8, which calculates average pupil achievement across eight subjects, and Progress 8, which measures the progress pupils have made between years 6 and 11 in comparison to students at other schools.

The national average score for Progress 8 is 0, with QE’s score of 0.64 putting it ahead of most other schools across the North-East.

Pupils at Prudhoe Community High School were also above the national average, scoring 0.4 in Progress 8. Ponteland High School scored 0, with Haydon Bridge High School at -0.1.

QE’s head of school James Andriot said: “The school’s Progress 8 score of 0.64 means that our students made significantly higher progress throughout Key Stages 3 and 4 than equivalent ability students nationally, performing two thirds of a grade better in each of their GCSEs than their peers with the same starting point.

“I am extremely proud that QE has performed so well in the DfE performance tables, which reflects the tremendous hard work put in by our students and staff.

“Progress 8 is such a democratic measure because it takes into account the progress made by all students, regardless of ability, across each of their subjects.

“Although it may just seem to be a statistic on a computer screen, it means, to me, that our young people have great opportunities for the future.”

Queen Elizabeth also scored higher than the national average in Attainment 8 – its score of 57.1 was well above the average of 44.6. A total of 80 per cent of pupils achieved Grade 5 or above at GCSE – the national average is 39.6 per cent.

At Prudhoe, pupils helped the school score 52.2 in Attainment 8, with 73 per cent achieving the strong exam passes, while Ponteland scored 51.4 and 78 per cent respectively. Haydon Bridge was slightly below average in Attainment 8 at 42, with 41 per cent achieving at least Grade 5.