SCHOOLS in the Malvern area were among those to score highly in the latest government league tables.

Hanley Castle High School near Upton-upon-Severn was ranked fourth best in the county with a Progress 8 rating of 0.38 – above the national average of 0.

The Progress 8 score is a school's average rating for how all its pupils have improved during secondary school, comparing their GCSE results against how they were expected to perform based on their SAT results at the end of primary school, and then comparing that overall average score for the school to the national average. A plus rating (0.01 and above) is considered an achievement as the school is above the national average.

The top school in the county was St Augustine's Catholic High School in Redditch with a rating of 1, while Nunnery Wood High School in Worcester was second with 0.52, and Prince Henry's High School in Evesham was third with 0.41.

The Chase in Malvern scored 0.05 while Dyson Perrins CE Academy in Malvern achieved 0.15.

Only schools which provided their results data were included in the Progress 8 table.

Overall, Worcestershire schools scored 0.06, above the national average.

Nunnery Wood head Steve Powell said: “We’re delighted. We’re blessed with wonderful students, staff and parents, and it’s a source of great pride that the school has had several high rankings in recent years.”

Other Worcestershire schools that did well in the assessments, according to their Progress 8 scores, were The De Montfort School in Evesham with 0.3, Bishop Perowne CE College in Worcester with 0.23, and Christopher Whitehead Language College in Worcester with 0.15.

The head of De Montfort School, Guy Nichols, attributed the school's success to a sustained commitment from students, staff parents and governors to put into place all the ingredients that make for a high performing school.

He said: “This improvement has come from a very conscious and deliberate strategy that we have put in place. This started with building excellent relationships between all members of the school community, which has now enabled high quality teaching to deliver great results.”

The Gazette was unable to contact anyone at Hanley Castle High School for a comment.