PUPILS in Oxfordshire have secured their place among the best in the country with top performances at a number of the county's schools.

Provisional results complied by the Department for Education following GCSE exams in the summer showed four secondary schools in the county were in the top 10 per cent in England.

Last week the Oxford Mail revealed The Oxford Academy in Littlemore had come top of the county's rankings and 14th in England out of 6,382 schools.

The Cherwell School in Summertown, Gillotts School in Henley and Didcot Girls' School were also in the top 10 per cent.

The rankings are based on the Progress 8 measure introduced this year which assesses schools on how well pupils did in up to eight subjects compared to the level they were at when they left primary school.

The Cherwell School headteacher Chris Price said he was delighted after the school secured a Progress 8 score of 0.49 – the second-highest in Oxfordshire.

This means on average each pupil got almost half a grade more than expected across their subjects.

Mr Price said: "I am very, very pleased.

"Progress 8 is a new benchmark and schools are getting use to it and what it means.

"I like the sense that it seems to be a fairer way of judging the performance of schools other than raw results.

"We were especially delighted with our English and maths at GCSE.

"It is important for young people that they are thinking about what grades they need to get on to the next stage of their lives.

"It is important to keep that at the forefront."

Among those celebrating after picking up good GCSE grades in the summer was pupil Joe Lodge.

He said: "School helped me learn effectively. I especially benefitted from the pre-exam help."

Fellow pupil Tom Ryan said: "Teachers were flexible and helped me to study the way I wanted to."

Didcot Girls' School was rated outstanding by Ofsted earlier this year and capped off a great 12 months by coming fourth in the county based on its Progress 8 score of 0.39.

The school also saw 80 per cent of its 190 GCSE students achieve A* to C grades in English and maths while 41 pupils got at least six A* and A grades.

Headteacher Rachael Warwick said: "This places the school in the top 20 per cent of schools nationally for both attainment and progress – a fantastic achievement.

"I welcome the new performance measures which privilege progress alongside attainment to show the difference which schools make to the progress of all of their students.

"The school continues to move from strength to strength as demonstrated by another year of fantastic results."

There was also a strong showing for Oxford Spires Academy in East Oxford, with a Progress 8 score of 0.27.

It trialled the system last year as part of a Government pilot.

Principal Sue Croft said: "We are really pleased, we would have been really disappointed if we had anything less.

"We are looking for an upward trajectory.

"Doing it last year really helped us in terms of having data that was meaningful both to teachers and to parents.

"It gives a good sense of belief for the kids who can see that they can do brilliantly."

Oxford Spires pupil Dominika Wlazlo was one of the top performers in the school with an individual score of 1.8

The 16-year-old said: "I surprised myself and I did better than expected.

"I have made progress, especially because English was not my first language but I felt I did really well in the end."

Her fellow pupil Holly Gardener, 16, picked up five A*s four As and two Bs.

She said: "I was surprised with some of my results but mostly really happy.

"I feel I have come a long way, when I first came to Oxford Spires I was not predicted these grades so I have done better than I expected."