Smiles as John Masefield school is rated the best in the county

For the 55 students who took A-Levels last year at the school's sixth form, the Department for Education progress score was +0.42, well above all other schools in the county.

This made John Masefield the only school in Herefordshire to achieve a rating of 'well above average'.

The only school with more than 20 sixth formers in Worcestershire that achieved the same rating was the fee-paying Malvern College, with a progress score of +0.35, less than John Masefield.

Head Andy Evans said: "We are delighted that students at John Masefield sixth form are making better progress than students at many top public schools and grammar schools.

"The combination of high-quality rigorous teaching, high expectations of staff of every student and the caring ethos all contribute to this success."

The performance tables also show that 28 per cent of John Masefield students achieved at least AAB grades in challenging facilitating subjects, compared to a national average of just 12 per cent.

Given that John Masefield sixth form is an all-ability sixth form that aims to nurture students of all abilities and has an extremely high completion rate, represents an excellent achievement.

Keen not to be outdone, the current group of Year 13 students are also shaping up well with 95 per cent having received offers from their first choice universities including one student securing an offer to study mathematics at Cambridge.

Mark Hawksworth, the school's head of sixth form, said: "We are very proud that our students progress so well and continue to move on to top universities and apprenticeships."

In October, it was revealed that John Masefield High School in Ledbury has performed better than average in the GCSE performance tables.

71 per cent of students got a good set of GCSEs, defined as five in total including English and Maths.

This compared favourably with the national average of 66.1 per cent.