Secondary school league tables: Where do Shropshire and Telford's rank?

For the first time, schools have not been judged on the proportion of pupils scoring at least five C grades at GCSE.

Instead, ministers have introduced a new headline measure called Progress 8. This looks at the progress a pupil makes from the end of primary school to the end of secondary school.

Nationally the Telford & Wrekin education authority found itself in the bottom quarter of the league tables.

The area had the 32nd worse figures in England and 15 per cent of the borough's secondary schools were said to be under performing.

Some schools were celebrating as pupils passed their exams with flying colours or showed improvements.

There was success for schools including Thomas Telford, Madeley Academy Newport Girls' High and Adams Grammar whose pupils shone in the core subjects of maths and English.

Those praised for helping pupils to improve from arriving from primary school included The Hadley Learning Community, Holy Trinity, Newport Girls High School, and Thomas Telford.

But others did not fare so well.

The majority of schools recorded negative scores for progress their pupils had made. Just 24 per cent of pupils at the Telford Park School recorded an A-C grade in both maths and English.

Headteachers have claimed that Progress 8 is a fairer way of judging schools' achievements than the previous measure, which was based on how many pupils achieved five A* to C grades.

Malcolm Trobe, interim general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "It better reflects the fact that children start their secondary school education at different levels of academic ability and it aims to judge schools on the progress that all their pupils make, rather than an arbitrary measure of GCSE attainment.

"However, Progress 8 has teething problems, and must be treated with some caution. Its biggest weakness is that the score of a school is disproportionately affected by anomalous results."

In Shropshire, none of the secondary schools were judged to be under-performing.

Schools and colleges offering A-levels also fared well.

The results show that the six schools with the highest average attainment score per pupil across eight subjects including English and mathematics are The Priory School in Shrewsbury, Mary Webb School and Science College in Pontesbury, William Brookes School in Much Wenlock, Corbet School Technology College in Baschurch, Belvidere School in Shrewsbury and Thomas Adams School in Wem.

The six schools where pupils made the most progress across eight subjects including English and mathematics are Belvidere School, Oldbury Wells School in Bridgnorth, Mary Webb School and Science College, Lacon Childe School in Cleobury Mortimer, Thomas Adams School and Bridgnorth Endowed School.

David Minnery, Shropshire Council's cabinet member for children's services, said: "These results reflect the hard work and effort that our students have put into their studies and we congratulate them on their success. Our thanks also go to everyone across the school communities in Shropshire who have supported the students."

Nationally, statistics show that nearly 300 secondaries in England are falling below a new Government floor target. Schools that are considered under-performing face intervention, and could be taken over.

GCSE results system under fire

The new GCSE grading system has come under fire from a leader of a school for being too confusing.

Brendan Wignall, headmaster at Ellesmere College, has also criticised the GCSE league tables.

Starting this summer, GCSE grades A* to G will be phased out in favour of grades numbered from nine to one.

On the league tables, he said: "At Ellesmere we are much more interested in individual pupil performance.

A really significant complication for the GCSE league tables is that the Government is not recognising International GCSEs offered by Cambridge University, which we do and which are widely accepted as being of a higher standard than GCSEs.

"Any school that offers this higher standard, has their IGCSE entries registered as the equivalent of no grade in the GCSE tables published today."

Mr Wignall said they have the same problem with the A-level league tables.