A SECONDARY school in Barrow has been listed as one of 346 in England and Wales that failed to provide the minimum standard of education.

Walney School has been included in Department for Education figures as one of 346 state-funded secondary schools that fell below the minimum standard in 2018.

Over the last three years however, the school has shown considerable improvement, overcoming its turbulent time when it was placed in special measures.

Walney School was last inspected by Ofsted in November 2018 when it was found to require improvement.

This marked an improvement from November 2016 when it was deemed to be inadequate after being placed in special measures.

Schools fall below the government's performance threshold if pupils fail to make enough progress across eight subjects, with particular weight given to English and maths.

A secondary is considered to be below the government's floor standard if, on average, pupils score half a grade less (-0.5) across eight GCSEs than they would have been expected to compared to pupils of similar abilities nationally.

Four other schools in Cumbria; the Richard Rose Central Academy in Carlisle, Netherhall School in Maryport, Whitehaven Academy and Dallam School in Milnthorpe, were also included.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "Performance tables can never tell the full story of a school and we urge parents and governors not to place too much weight on them.

"The secondary school performance tables are inherently flawed in that the headline measure of Progress 8 which is used to judge the performance of schools effectively penalises schools which have a high proportion of disadvantaged children.

"The effect of this is to stigmatise these schools, making it more difficult to recruit headteachers and teachers and demoralising pupils, parents and communities."

The Mail contacted Walney School for a comment but the school did not respond before going to press.