THE best and worst performing schools in Dudley based on GCSE results have been revealed.

Latest provisional figures from the Department for Education show how the borough’s schools fared in the exams taken in the summer.

It is the second year schools have been ranked using the new Attainment 8 grading system after major changes were made to how exams are assessed.

Attainment 8 is an average score across eight subjects taken at GCSE, including English and maths. The higher the score, the better.

In the Dudley borough, the school achieving the highest Attainment 8 score was Old Swinford Hospital School in Stourbridge which notched up a score of 57.6 – with Redhill in Stourbridge achieving a score of 50.5 and Bishop Milner Catholic College in Dudley gaining 50.1. Summerhill School in Kingswinford also gained a score of 50 – compared to the national average of 46.4.

At the other end of the scale – St James’s Academy in Dudley achieved a score of 32.1, with Hillcrest School and Community College in Dudley achieving 37, followed by Pedmore High School which gained a score of 37.8 and Dudley’s Pegasus Academy which achieved a score of 38.5.

Schools are also given Progress 8 scores between -1 and +1. A score of +1 means pupils in that school achieve one grade higher in each qualification than other similar pupils nationally; a score of -1 means they achieve one grade lower. The average Progress 8 score of all secondary schools nationally is 0.

With this scoring – only two borough schools achieved above average ratings – Bishop Milner Catholic College and The Earls High School in Halesowen.

Old Swinford Hospital headmaster Paul Kilbride said of the results: “As ever I'd like to thank our teachers who have worked so hard to make sense of the reformed GCSE examinations, as well as our pupils who were the first group to go through the 9 to 1 GCSEs across the board. The curriculum changes, both at GCSE and at A-level, have posed a real challenge for teachers at all schools.”

Gareth Lloyd, headteacher at Pedmore High School, agreed and said: “The new GCSE exams and the new progress scoring system have presented challenges to all schools. As a truly comprehensive school that serves all of its community, regardless of prior ability, Pedmore will always be penalised under the new system which does not recognise the incredible effort and progress made by the majority of our students.

“Despite these challenges, our results in most subjects are good. It is simply that the new system does not give equal credit to all students’ results. For example, our English results are above the national average again this year and we have a very healthy progress score.

“Unlike other schools, all of our students sit GCSE exams and not other, less academic qualifications which are used to boost progress scores.

“All of our year 11 students went on to their first-choice post-16 course which, for us, is the true measure of success.”

To see the full results and check out the data click here.