The latest performance scores for the town’s secondary schools have been revealed.

The latest ‘Progress 8’ figures, which give state schools a positive or negative score, measure the progress that pupils make from the end of key stage 2 – the last year of primary school – to the end of key stage 4 – when they take GCSEs.

The scores show that Hanley Castle High School near Upton had the highest ‘Progress 8’ rating among secondary schools in the Malvern Hills district – with an ‘above average’ score of 0.28 meaning that pupils achieved up to half a grade higher in each qualification on average, compared to similar pupils nationally.

The higher a pupil's 'Progress 8' score, the more progress they have made in comparison with pupils who started at a similar level according to the Department for Education.

The Chase School in Geraldine Road, Malvern, was close behind with an ‘average’ 0.06 ‘Progress 8’ score.

Dyson Perrins CE Academy received an ‘average’ -0.09 score.

Hanley Castle High School also received the highest ‘Attainment 8’ score of 50.7 based on results from the last school year with The Chase receiving a 49.3 score and Dyson Perrins CE Academy receiving a 41.2 score.

‘Attainment 8’ shows the average academic performance of a secondary school and is calculated by adding together the pupils' highest scores across eight subjects.

The figures, released by the Department for Education, also show how many pupils entered the English Baccalaureate (Ebacc) which means they must have entered qualifications in English, maths, sciences, a language and either history or geography, and the average Ebacc point score for each school.

The figures also show how many students achieved a grade five or above in English and maths GCSEs with 50 per cent at Hanley Castle High School, 45 per cent at The Chase and 36 per cent at Dyson Perrins CE Academy all making the cut.

GCSEs are graded between a ‘low’ one and the ‘highest’ nine. Grade five is a similar level to a ‘high’ grade C or ‘low’ grade B under the old system.

John Masefield High School in nearby Ledbury received a ‘below average’ -0.48 ‘Progress 8’ score and a 46.5 ‘Attainment 8’ score. As many as 45 per cent of students received a grade five or above in their English and maths GCSEs.