Only two schools in Weston-super-Mare and surrounding areas scored above the national average for pupil progress, provisional GCSE results have revealed.

The table was released by the Department for Education and compares schools’ performances nationwide on the new progress 8 and attainment 8 measures.

The new system was introduced in the last academic year and moved away from the previous five A*-C comparison system.

Progress 8 concentrates on the development made by pupils from the end of primary school to the end of secondary school.

The attainment measure looks at a student’s average grade across eight subjects, with English and maths counting twice.

A school’s attainment 8 is calculated based on the average of all its students’ scores.

Hans Price Academy scored its best results to date this year and beat the national average for both measures, securing a 0.17 progress score and a 44.7 attainment score. National averages stand at 0 and 43.8 respectively.

Kings of Wessex Academy, in Cheddar, topped the local table, achieving 0.49 in progress.

At the bottom, King Alfred School, in Highbridge was below average in both categories – scoring 41.1 in attainment and pupils’ making -0.78 in progress.

Priory and Worle Community schools both surpassed the attainment measure but fell short in pupils’ progress while Broadoak Mathematics and Computing College was below average on both.

The new 9-1 grading system was introduced during the this year. It was rolled out nationwide in English and maths and is due to replace the lettered system in other subjects by 2018’s results.

Pupils received a grade 9-1 in the two core subjects, with 4 being a pass and the higher the number the better the achievement.

Jon Reddiford, National Union of Teachers’ North Somerset secretary, said the union was ‘not happy’ with the new measures and felt the numbered grading system is just ‘a bad idea’.

He added: “The point of changing over to numbers is to hide the lowering of results which will be happening in the content-heavy new exams.

“It will undoubtedly produce much confusion for employers in the future and for last year’s year 11 cohort who have got both numbers and letter, they are going to have to spend the rest of their lives explaining it.”