Eighty per cent of secondary students on the Isle of Wight attend an underperforming school

Just one school on the Island was found to be performing on par with the national average — Cowes Enterprise College.

For students aged 16 to 18, five out of seven schools were found to be working at the national average, with Christ the King College and Ryde Academy falling below.

Overall, 40 per cent of students, if you include sixth form in addition to secondary aged children, on the Isle of Wight attend an underperforming school.

Schools were scored on Progress 8 — which shows how much progress pupils made between Key Stage 2 and 4 compared to pupils across England who got similar results at the end of Key Stage 2.

Medina College and Carisbrooke College were both found to be well-below average in the secondary school league tables.

Medina College had a score of -0.56, and Carisbrooke -0.84.

National average is scored as zero.

Carisbrooke College executive headteacher Matthew Parr-Burman said: “At the moment it’s clear the results are not good enough, and I am not happy with them. Over the course of the next year we are going to improve quite rapidly.

“We are going to be great, we are going to be an amazing school.”

Mr Parr-Burman said part of the issue was with the subjects chosen to score children, which followed a more ‘grammar school curriculum’.

Results are based on English, maths and other subjects — including sciences, history, geography and languages.

Mr Parr-Burman said: “Students were encouraged to pick subjects the school felt were right for the children.

“There is a dilemma between what we want for our students and what we know will do well in the league tables.”

Cabinet member for education, Cllr Paul Brading, said he was concerned but fully expected results to have improved by next year.

Cllr Brading said: “Each school is going on its own individual journey.

“We have good, new headteachers in place at all the secondary schools on the Island.

“The main thing is GCSE results on the Island will be better next year.”

He said although the results for Sandown Bay Academy were not included in the government statistics, the school performed on par with Medina College.

He said: “It’s indicative of the mess left by AET, but the team have gone in and are really working to turn things around.”

Principal of Cowes Enterprise College, ranked the highest performing school on the Island, Rachel Kitley said: “We are very proud of what we — students, staff and parents — have all achieved at Cowes Enterprise College over the last few years, with the support of Ormiston Academies Trust.

“The school is now an academy of choice for so many families on the Island and we want to build on this to continue to provide a great education to all our current and future students.”

Vix Lowthion, from the Green party, said: “Exam performance is only a part of what our good Island schools are doing every single day. Instilling qualities of adventure and compassion, courage and resilience are not measured on these government statistics

“League tables are a snapshot of the work schools do.

“My eldest also attends one of the listed ‘below standards’ Island schools as our first choice. It’s a good school, dealing with vulnerable kids in the centre of an isolated Island community. It’s so good, I choose to send my son here. It’s not failing. It’s thriving against the odds.”

Where does your school rank in the league tables?

Below: The league tables for secondary school performance.

See the full tables online.

Below: The league tables for A-Level performance.

Updated 2.30pm

Chair of Isle of Wight Labour, Julian Critchley said: "I believe this endless bashing of our local schools is not just unfair, but helps create a vicious cycle. For example, we know our schools struggle to recruit already, and constantly belittling their work doesn't help with that.

"League tables have always been incredibly misleading, and create a false narrative of failure where no failure exists. Having been a teacher, I know how just a handful of individual students getting disappointing results can impact on these spurious statistics for the whole school.

"We should not lose sight of the fact that our schools are having to deal with the government's biggest real terms funding cuts to school budgets in decades.

"Our schools are full of conscientious professionals going the extra mile every day to try and make up for those funding cuts. They deserve better than yet another round of criticism. They have my gratitude for all they do."