New school league tables are published today that attempt to take into account the background of the students taught.

The Northern Powerhouse Partnership has created a “Fairer Schools Index”, which uses an adjusted Progress 8 score.

It says its system is fairer that the official Department for Education tables because it factors in long-term deprivation, whether students are eligible for free school meals and student ethnicity and gender when measuring progress.

Tables: New fairer school index benefits Northern schools but London scores fall 

School improvement: ‘How we can improve schools in the North’

Exclusive: Progress 8 penalises schools in white working-class communities

The official Progress 8 scores look at pupil performance in eight subjects at GCSE compared with their starting point in secondary education at the end of key stage 2.

A ‘fairer’ school league table?

Using the Fairer Schools Index measure, a fifth of schools saw their national league table position change by more than 500 places and 46 per cent of schools judged “well below average” or  “below average” under Progress 8 moved up out of these bandings.  

Of the 20 schools that climbed the most from their official DfE league table Progress 8 ranking, 15 were in the North of England.

Biggest 20 climbers in the Fairer Schools Index table

The Northern Powerhouse Partnership has also produced a table showing which schools are the highest-ranked in the country if their adjusted Progress 8 measure is used.

Top-ranked schools in the Fairer Schools Index