THE principal of a secondary school says its positive Progress 8 score is a "testament to years of hard work".

Sutton Academy achieved +0.3 in the recently announced Progress 8 scores, which was the highest in St Helens.

The average score in the borough was -0.25, which was calculated from provisional data released this autumn.

The Progress 8 score sees a school given a positive or negative value which is used to assess the progress which has been made by pupils from when they sat their Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) at the end of primary school in Year 6 to the results they achieved in their GCSEs in Year 11.

A positive score (above zero) means pupils made more progress, on average, than pupils across England who got similar results at the end of Year 6, while a minus score indicates, on average, they made less.

Sutton Academy School said it believes its score of +0.3 is the highest a secondary school in St Helens has ever achieved.

READ > What St Helens secondary schools achieved in their Progress 8 scores

As the Star previously reported, the school achieved a rating of 'Good' in its latest Ofsted inspection in June this year, moving up from 'requires improvement' which it had received previously in 2019.

The rating came after the school had been noted as making good progress during monitoring reports, since it appointed Paul Willerton as principal in September 2020.

In response to the Progress 8 score, Mr Willerton said: "This summer our Year 11 students achieved our best ever set of GCSE results, these excellent outcomes are a testament to years of hard work.

"We are incredibly proud of the students' success, these results alongside our Ofsted report in June is reflective of the journey we are on at the academy to provide the best possible education."

He added: "This achievement is even more impressive when we consider the obstacle of Covid to make sure studies did not suffer. 

"The leadership team at the academy are determined to build on these outstanding outcomes and go from strength to strength."

The Progress 8 figures are based on provisional data and could be subject to change.