A NEW secondary school progress measure - deemed "fairer" by the government but which unions say must be viewed with "caution" - has seen a number of Barrow schools fall below the target and Cumbria emerge as one of the worst-performing areas.

For the first time schools have not been judged on the proportion of pupils scoring at least five A* to C grades at GCSE, including in English and maths. Instead, ministers have introduced a new yardstick called Progress 8.

Progress 8 looks at the progress a pupil makes from the end of primary school to the end of secondary school. It compares pupils' results with the achievements of other youngsters with the same prior attainment. Progress 8 is calculated for each pupil by comparing their Attainment 8 score - ameasure of achievement across eight subjects.

Cumbria was the 14th worst-performing local authority area in the country according to the proportion of secondary schools that were found to be under-performing in the 2016 GCSE exams. In Cumbria's case it was 23.7 per cent, or nine under-performing schools.

Progress 8 scores are based around an average point of 0, meaning those with positive scores are above-average and those with negative scores are below-average. The Department for Education has said scores below minus 0.50 are below the "floor standard".

In Barrow under the required standard were; Furness Academy with minus 0.94, Walney School with minus 0.76 and Chetwynde School with minus 0.72.

The Evening Mail contacted these three schools to ask about the data. Chetwynde School responded, but Furness Academy and Walney School had not been back in contact at the time of going to press.

Chetwynde School said its score is an "anomaly" due to a couple of factors. Twenty-seven students in the group of 42 joined Chetwynde as a Free School in Year 10 or very late Year Nine from other schools. Chetwynde says the Progress 8 figure is affected significantly by the previous data available for the students due to little progress made while in other schools in Key Stage Three. For some there were also previous attendance issues.

Sian Jeffreys, head of Chetwynde School, said they were great young people and their parents made the brave decision to move them at that stage. Mrs Jeffreys said all the year group went on to study A-Levels, college courses and apprenticeships.

Also, 10 students who had been in Chetwynde's primary school have not being counted in the score by the DfE, as these students did not take Key Stage Two exams. When Chetwynde was an independent school it did not do Key Stage Two tests marked for national data, but did tests assessed by teachers.

Mrs Jeffreys said pupils who had been with the school from primary and throughout the secondary years made above-average progress.

Mrs Jeffreys said she liked the idea of Progress 8, she said: "It is fairer to look at progress. It's a deeper and wider judgment of a child and a school. I appreciate the idea of judging over a period of time rather than a snapshot of attainment at 16."

Cartmel CE Priory School had one of the most positive Progress 8 Scores in the area, with plus 0.49.

Headteacher Paul Williams said the Cartmel Priory community was very proud of the year group, adding pupils of low, middle and high ability all made good progress.

Dr Williams said: "Measuring each individual child's performance is better than the old measure. If you just look at raw results the biggest thing is the ability of the intake of children. With Progress 8 each child counts."

The head said that under the old five A*to C measure, with English and maths, if a school had a large number of low-ability children the results didn't show that they might have made good progress, despite not getting five top grades.

Dr Williams said: "No system is perfect, there are reasons why children do better or worse. There are still weaknesses and problems in the system."

Clare Feeney-Johnson, Cumbria County Council cabinet member for schools and learning, said:“Cumbria County Council recognises the need for schools to improve, and wants the best possible educational outcomes for all Cumbrian children and young people.

"The Cumbria Alliance of System Leaders brings schools, head teachers and the council together to drive improvement across all schools and to provide support to schools in difficulty.

"While seven of the nine schools identified as under-performing are academies, in which the council has no direct power to intervene, we are working alongside the regional schools commissioner and our CASL partners to implement a robust plan for improvement for identified schools and academies in Cumbria.

"This is a complex picture, with different issues affecting different schools. Recent changes to the way school performance is measured have created challenges for some of our smaller secondary schools who need to balance the individual curriculum needs of pupils with those subjects that give the school the best possible scores.

"In some schools, the impact of the lower progress of a relatively small number of pupils has had a significant impact on the overall measure. However, there is a collective recognition of the need to ensure that we improve outcomes further.”

Schools minister Nick Gibb said "Progress 8 measure will help more children to achieve their potential." The DfE also says is it "fairer for recognising the achievements of all students".

Malcolm Trobe, interim general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "Congratulations to schools and pupils on these results, which have been achieved against a national backdrop of a funding and recruitment crisis.

"Progress 8 is a fairer measure of school performance than the old measure of the proportion of pupils achieving at least five A* to C grades at GCSE including English and maths.

"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 as few as one or two pupils recording anomalous results.

"We are aware of cases where Progress 8 scores have been badly affected by the fact that a very small number of vulnerable children have missed exams as a result of illnesses or other personal crises."

A-Level and Further Education

Furness College, in Barrow, is celebrating good results for further education courses at Channelside and A-Levels at its Barrow Sixth Form College campus at Rating Lane. The two colleges merged in August.

Furness College had a 0.70 value added score for applied general courses.

Principal and chief executive, Andrew Wren, said “We are delighted with the results which recognise the hard work of students and staff across a breadth of post-16 provision that is unique in Cumbria.

"We are especially pleased with the very high value added scores across academic, professional and technical courses which demonstrate that students achieve higher grades than might be expected from their GCSE grades when they leave school. School leavers, their parents and employers can all be assured of a bright future for school leavers in Barrow and the surrounding area.”

Following the merger, Barrow Sixth Form College's separate results are no longer available for A-Level provision through the publication of performance tables. This year the DfE did not publish the results for the institution as it had closed and reopened as part of Furness College. But its results were used in national and local averages.

In future years, both sites will have their performance reported through a single Furness College performance record that will take account of both A-Level and professional and technical qualifications.

It was a record year for the college and there was a value added A-Level score of 0.18.

Assistant principal and head of sixth form Jeff Chadd said: "In addition to the stunning pass rate of 99.1 per cent, the progress our students made from their standard at GCSE is, according to the government’s figures, ‘significantly above that for all A-Level providers’. Massive congratulations are again due to the students, their families and staff."

*Results supplied by Furness College for Barrow Sixth Form College

Average points score per A Level entry: 29.91

Average points score per academic entry: 30.01

Average points score per tech level entry: NA

Average points core per applied general entry: 31.03

Average points score in best 3 A Level entries: 31.72

Number of students inc in AAB in 2 facilitating subjects measure: 201

Percentage of A Level students achieving at least 3 A Levels at Grades AAB or better: 8.5%

A Level Value added score: 0.18

Academic value added score: 0.18

Applied general value added score: 0.23