STATE schools in Barnet are once again on track to perform better than the national average for GCSE results, according to council figures.

This year sees the introduction of new nation-wide systems for measuring students’ attainment called ‘Attainment 8’ and ‘Progress 8’.

Provisional results given to Barnet Council show 16 out of 23 secondary schools in the borough are set to achieve higher than the average school nationwide.

‘Attainment 8’ measures the achievement across eight qualifications including English and Maths and ‘Progress 8’ measures the progress pupils make from the end of primary school to the end of secondary school.

Results so far show the average Attainment 8 score in Barnet is 55 points compared to the national average in 2015 of 48.4 points.

Barnet’s Progress 8 score is +0.5, showing that pupils in Barnet make more progress on average.

The proportion of teens who achieved an A*- C grade in both English and Maths is currently 72.2 per cent, which is above the 2015 national average of 59 per cent and an increase of 1.2 per cent points from last year.

In 2015, Barnet was ranked top in the country for the proportion of students who achieved the English Baccalaureate (EBacc); an A*-C grade in all of English, Maths, Science, Humanities and a Language.

Barnet’s EBacc figures are strong this year at 38.8 per cent compared to the national average in 2015 of 24 per cent.

16-year-old Rose Stevens from Brent Cross, who goes to Hendon School and achieved four A*s including one in Japanese, five As and one B, said: “I was pretty nervous because I didn’t think I was going to do as well as I did. I am really pleased that it worked out better.”

Chair of the children, education, libraries and safeguarding committee Councillor Reuben Thompstone said: “Congratulations to all those students who have collected their GCSE results – once again Barnet schools have performed extremely well.

“Our students’ achievements are the result of a great deal of hard work and the commitment and skill of all of our fantastic teaching and schools staff.

“We are extremely proud of all that the borough’s schools have achieved.”