The Steiner Academy Hereford is the best secondary school in Herefordshire, the Government's latest league tables show.

The school achieved a strong score in the Progress 8 measure, used to assess how much pupils have improved during their time at the school, for the 2018-19 academic year.

It retains its title as the area's highest-ranking school.

St Mary's RC High School and Fairfield High School also performed well.

At the other end of the scale, The Brookfield School was bottom of the Progress 8 score rankings for last year.

The Steiner Academy Hereford is a sponsored academy which accepts children aged three to 16.

It has 332 registered pupils. Of them, 25 were eligible to take GCSEs last year.

Under Progress 8, pupils are measured across their scores in eight GCSEs, including core subjects (English, maths and sciences), and their best scores in other, chosen subjects.

These scores are compared to their performance in Key Stage 2 exams, and used to calculate the amount of value the school is adding to a child's education, measured by the institution's Progress 8 score.

Schools with missing or incomplete data were excluded from the rankings.

In The Steiner Academy Hereford, 60% of pupils hit the expected target, grade 4 to 9, in English and maths. Overall, 24% hit strong grades of 5 or above in both subjects.

As a result, the school achieved a Progress 8 score of 0.84 – Herefordshire's highest. Scores of above and below zero are better and worse than average, respectively.

The top schools in Herefordshire, according to their Progress 8 scores, were:

1) The Steiner Academy Hereford (Progress 8 score: 0.84)

2) St Mary's RC High School (0.45)

3) Fairfield High School (0.39)

4) Wigmore School (0.12)

5) John Kyrle High School and Sixth Form Centre Academy (0.05)

6) Queen Elizabeth High School (0.02)

7) Kingstone High School (-0.06)

8) Whitecross Hereford (-0.09)

9) John Masefield High School (-0.11)

10) Lady Hawkins' School (-0.23)

12) Weobley High School (-0.31) 

13) Aylestone School (-0.61)

14) Earl Mortimer College and Sixth Form Centre (-0.88)

15) The Hereford Academy (-0.95)

16) The Brookfield School (-2.11)