SCHOOLS in Swindon have been trumpeting their individual successes despite the town being placed in the bottom half of the South West region when it comes to pupils achieving five or more A*-C grades at GCSE level.

On Thursday, the Department for Education released the provisional league tables for schools based on this summer’s GCSE and A level results.

Swindon was placed third from the bottom in the South West region with 54% of pupils achieving an A*-C grade, compared with the regional average of 57.7 percent.

The figure is still an improvement on previous years, however, with 53 percent and 53.1 percent of pupils achieving A*-C grades in 2014/15 and 2013/14 respectively.

In a radical overhaul of the way in which schools are ranked, this year sees the piloting of a new secondary school accountability system which includes the measures Progress 8 and Attainment.

According to the Department of Education, Progress 8 “aims to capture the progress a pupil makes from the end of primary school to the end of secondary school”.

A Progress 8 score is calculated for each pupil by comparing their achievement – their Attainment 8 score – with the average Attainment 8 score of all pupils nationally who started from a similar point.

It means schools will no longer be championed for having particularly bright pupils, but for how much their students have improved, even if individual students' final grades are below expected levels.

Swindon Academy has been ranked the top performing school in Swindon for Progress 8, with a result of 0.24.

Principal Ruth Robinson said: “Following on from such a strong set of GCSE results this summer, we are very pleased that our Progress 8 score is above average – not only locally but against similar schools across the country.

“This is a new and important measure of the strength of a school and reflects our ambition for all students to exceed expectations and achieve their very best from day one. Our students and staff work incredibly hard at each stage of the school so it is particularly encouraging that this has been recognised.”

Attainment 8 measures the achievement of a pupil across eight qualifications including maths and English, three further qualifications in the English Baccalaureate measure and three further qualifications that can be GCSEs or any other approved non-GCSE qualifications.

Regarding A level results, Swindon was ranked the lowest in the South West region for the percentage of students achieving grades AAB or higher with a score of 8.6 percent, compared with a regional average of 18.6 percent.

The figures released this week are provisional and will be officially verified in January.