BARNSLEY’S secondary schools aren’t performing as well as others, trailing behind the national average for progress and attainment according to the government’s new GCSE league tables.

From this year, schools are being judged by new measures which aim to take greater account of how a pupil progresses and their basic ability - rather than purely on results. The government says the new measures give a clearer picture of how well a school is performing.

Under this new system, the overall performance of the borough’s secondary schools is below the national average of 0 (meaning pupils do as well as expected). Barnsley scored -0.22 under the new ‘Progress 8’ measure, which looks at how far pupils have improved between leaving primary school and completing their GCSEs.

Read more in this weeks Barnsley Chronicle