HEADTEACHERS have expressed mixed reactions after provisional figures showed the rate of progress made by their students.

Recent data from the Department for Education shows one metric for how schools did in the GCSE exams taken in the summer.

It is the third year grades have been marked using the Progress 8 system, after major changes were made as to how exams are assessed.

The mark looks to show the development pupils have made between Year 6 exams and when they take their GCSEs.

The scores are provisional with any revisions to be published in January.

Testbourne Community School was given a score of 0.24 and rated 'above average', while Harrow Way, Winton and The Clere School were all categorised as 'average', with marks of 0.04, -0.27 and -0.28 and respectively.

Three schools were all classed to be 'below average', as John Hanson gained a score of -0.35, The Wellington Academy was given a figure of -0.40 and Test Valley School -0.43.

Testbourne Community Academy

Headteacher Jon Beck said: "At Testbourne, we are extremely pleased with, and proud of, the Progress 8 score for 2018. This measure is an indicator of how well students have performed in terms of their starting point.

"We have seen a significant rise of half a GCSE grade per student per subject on average. With the substantial changes to the reformed GCSE courses in most subjects, this is an exceptional gain and is testament to our relentless focus on the quality of teaching and the collective efforts of our students, parents and staff."

Harrow Way Community School

Headteacher Michael Serridge said: "I am very proud that Harrow Way's commitment to the highest standards in teaching and learning is reflected in our 2018 progress 8 score which is one of the highest scores in the local area, putting us in the top 25% of secondary schools in Hampshire. 2018 is also the third year of progress 8 improvement for Harrow Way.

Clearly, none of this is achieved without the hard work of our students and the dedicated staff team that we have here, and we know too that parents play a pivotal part in encouraging and supporting such achievement.

As a school we are, of course, delighted by these strong indications of the impact and quality of the excellent teaching and learning here which is one of the cornerstones of our ambition to be an 'Outstanding' school."

The Wellington Academy

"The Progress 8 figure for The Wellington Academy remained unchanged at -0.4 in 2018 compared to 2017. Progress 8 (P8) is a statistically sensitive figure that can change quite significantly by the performance of one subject or a very small group of students," said headteacher Abrilli Phillip.

"The Wellington Academy saw an almost half a grade progress improvement in English, further improvement in maths which is now above the national average and one fifth of a grade improvement in Ebacc subjects.

"There was unfortunately a decline the performance in some vocational subjects which counteracted the improvements in the core and more difficult subjects, all of which were subject to new more difficult changes.

"We are proud of our pupils who actually performed better in more difficult GCSEs. A very small percentage of students who access an alternative provision at the academy as we aim to be a fully inclusive school unfortunately had an adverse effect on our P8 figure. In the climate of off rolling we are proud that all our young people were on our roll and completed at least one GSCE. Some of those pupils did not access a full set of Progress 8 subjects, which we felt was right for them and meant their needs have been met. They all however completed core GCSEs in maths, English and science and have now progressed on to college courses. The difference of this group was as much as 0.2 of a progress score."

Clere School

Clere School headteacher Benjamin Bond said. "This is an excellent set of results. We are proud of all our pupils who have worked so very hard for their success and these grades.

" As they enter further education, training and other courses we wish them the very best and know they will continue to do great things.

"I also pay tribute to our superb staff team who have supported, driven and ensured the pupils did as well as they possible could; alongside brilliant parent support. These results set The Clere up for an excellent year and are an inspiration for our other pupils to exceed."

Winton Community Academy

"The current Year 11 will be the first group of students who have been through five years with the current leadership and we are very confident that the progress and attainment scores will be excellent," said headteacher Nathan Thomas.

"This year we were disappointed with the dip in the Progress 8 score but we were expecting it. We had five students who attended an alternative provision and unfortunately did not really get any qualifications at all. Without these students our overall Progress 8 score for the academy was positive. To be in the average bracket for progress with a small year group and five students getting so few qualifications was encouraging. However, as we drive towards outstanding over the next three years we want to see consistently improving Progress 8 scores every year."

John Hanson Community Academy

Headteacher Russell Stevens said: "Our Progress 8 for 2018 was 'flat' compared with 2017. However this only measures a narrow set of externally prescribed subjects and will be impacted by a schools' curriculum structure choices.

"Exam results should be, and are at John Hanson, about life chances for students and therefore the individual results gained by individual students that allows them to pursue their preferred post-16 journeys are far more important.

"English and maths (Basics) are the only two subjects that all students sit in all schools and therefore form a far clearer comparison between schools. Taking this in to account the outcomes for all three Andover schools were very similar in 2018."

Test Valley School was contacted for a comment.