CHILDREN in Bury are on the whole making below average progress at secondary school, new figures have revealed.

The department for education has released its performance tables detailing the results of each school in the country based on last summer's GCSE exams

More than forty per cent of children left school without the benchmark five or more good GCSEs including English and maths.

READ MORE: Find out how your child's school did here: Bury league tables 2019 (004).pdf

READ MORE: Bury Grammar School records the best GCSE results ­— but is placed bottom of the secondary school league tables

And two schools in Bury are listed as amongst the 346 worst performing schools nationally.

Overall 56.7 per cent achieved five or more good GCSEs including English and maths, in line with last year and just slightly above the national average.

But there was plenty of individual school successes to celebrate.

The best performing state-funded school in Manchester Mesivta School, where 74 per cent of pupils left achieving five or more good grades in their GCSEs including English and maths.

Rabbi Binyomin Sulzbacher said: "Credit must be given to all my staff for their tremendous teaching ability with detailed planning and ongoing assessments to be able to produce such outstanding results. "There is a culture of excellence and achievement amongst the pupils and they have applied themselves incredibly well throughout the GCSE course.

"These results are even more impressive, when one takes into account that the overwhelming majority of our students sat these exams in Year 10, a year earlier than most of the country. This was also alongside the morning sessions that are dedicated towards the Jewish Studies Programme. These results create a range of opportunities for the students as they move on into A-levels, giving them options in their future life in terms of FE and career choices."

Number one in the table is Darul Uloom Al Arabiya Al Islamiya where 100 per cent of pupils achieved the benchmark.

The best performing school based on progress was named as The Derby High School, where children made above average progress.

And the school is the highest performing secondary school in Bury for the second year running based on the progress measure.

A score of +0.40 indicates that their students are making more progress in their GCSEs than students of similar starting points do nationally. This is equivalent to almost half a grade higher in each qualification.

Headteacher Helen Hubert said: "This is phenomenal.

"After our Ofsted report last year which stated ‘The Derby High School continues to be good’ we have the drive and self-belief to ensure the school is moving towards outstanding.

"This superb achievement was made possible by our innovative, caring and dedicated staff who ensure all our students are given the tools and resilience to succeed."

In five schools children made below average progress and in two ­— Tottington High School and Broad Oak School ­— young people made well below average progress.

This means they made less progress than other pupils nationally with similar starting points.

Tottington High School and Broad Oak School fell below the Government's minimum standards in 2018.

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.