Melton school ranked in the top five per cent

John Ferneley College was 330th out of 6,382 schools in the newly-introduced Progress 8 league tables.

The governments brought in the new system to monitor the performance of students from when they leave primary school until the time their secondary school studies end.

The new measures take into account every child in a school as opposed to the old system which considered only the academic high-fliers.

Christine Stansfield (pictured), headteacher at John Ferneley College, was delighted with the news.

She said: “This means that our students make, on average, nearly half a grade more than they would in any other school in the country.

“We have known for some years that what we are doing is special but to have it confirmed by the department for education in this new measure validates our beliefs and we are delighted.

“Under the old measurement system it was very easy to look great if they got above the ‘C’ grade threshold.

“We favour this new system because it takes into account the performance of every single child and not just a select few.”

The previous league tables ranked schools according to the proportion of their students who attained C grades or higher in five GCSE subjects, including English and maths.

The new Progress 8 system recognises those schools where all pupils make progress in their grades.

To be ranked higher, a school’s students must also show they have at least matched their projected academic performance based on their Key Stage 2 marks.

The impressive performance by John Ferneley College, which is part of the Mowbray Education Trust, has a lot to do with the quality of the teaching, according to Mrs Stansfield.

She added: “I would like to say there is a magic bullet but there isn’t.

“The bottom line is our students have fun with us, both in learning and in our incredibly varied, enrichment programme.

“I am hugely grateful to our teachers for whom nothing is too much trouble.

“I am also lucky to have a school that has completely bought in to our vision that students come first.”