RUNCORN and Widnes’s top secondary schools have been revealed after the Department of Education published league tables based on pupils' progress.

Ormiston Chadwick Academy topped the table for Halton, followed by Wade Deacon High School and Saints Peter and Paul Catholic College.

But schools in both towns fell behind the national average.

The results are based on a new system using schools’ Attainment 8 performances, which measure pupils’ progress since they left primary school.

The score is calculated from every increase in grade a pupil gets, based on maths, English and six other qualifications

Each student’s score is then added up to give an overall ranking for the school.

A negative score does not mean pupils made no progress or the school failed, but that students made less progress than others who left primary school with similar grades.

Halton schools made below average progress for 14 to 16-year-old education, with a score of -0.19 compared to the country's overall score of -0.03.

But 60.2 per cent of teenagers in Runcorn and Widnes got a grade C or higher in their maths and English GCSEs compared to the national average of 59.3 per cent.

Runcorn and Widnes World:

Runcorn and Widnes World: