A BRADFORD school has been named among the best in the country according to a new ‘Fairer Schools Index’.

It has been published by the Northern Powerhouse Partnership and created to give a fairer picture of pupil progress than current Department for Education (DfE) secondary school league tables, by adjusting for major considerations in pupil background.

According to the research, the index sees Dixons Trinity Academy jump four places from its position in the DfE league tables, making it seventh best in the country and second best in the North.

Drawing on research undertaken at the University of Bristol, the Fairer Schools Index takes into account a number of different factors including whether pupils are eligible for free school meals, long-term deprivation,plus ethnicity and gender, to give an adjusted Progress 8 score.

The NPP says that in using this adjusted measure, a fifth of schools saw their national league table position change by over 500 places and 46 per cent of schools judged ‘well below average’ and ‘well below average’ under Progress 8 move up out of these bandings.

Analysts believe Ofsted should be required to use the adjusted measures as part of the evidence used during school inspections.

It's anticipated this could help attract and retaining the best teachers.

Sarah Mulholland, Head of Policy at the NPP, said: “The index should be published alongside the current school league tables in order to give a fairer, more accurate picture of school performance by taking into account factors which have a huge impact on education attainment.

“By ignoring these realities, schools with poorer pupils but which are making real progress will nevertheless be ranked lower than they deserve, and vice versa.

"This will fail to hold to account schools which are under-performing in the context of pupil background, and learning will suffer as a result in wealthier areas both in the North through to the Home Counties."

Jenny Thompson, Executive Principal, Dixons Trinity Academy, said: "We are so proud of our students, our families and our team at Dixons Trinity who have delivered extraordinary outcomes every year – this really shows our values in action – we work hard, we trust in each other and we really believe that every student, no matter what, should have the same fair chance to achieve."

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We have the same, high expectations for all pupils, regardless of their background.

"School performance measures such as Progress 8 do not take into account factors such as deprivation, as mathematical weightings would cloud the clear picture provided on how schools support all their pupils to progress and improve.”

They said the Progress 8 methodology was revised in 2018 in response to feedback, so it now limits the impact that extremely negative individual pupil scores can have on a school’s overall Progress 8 score.