NEW tables for secondary schools assess the progress they have made with the pupils.

Instead of raw exam results, which are bound to show a selective school at the top of the table, new "value added" measures are intended to give recognition for the work they do with children of all abilities.

Using academic results only, Ermysted's and Skipton Girls High would be certain to finish top but the value added tables paint a different picture.

Using 100 as a base line for progress any child would be expected to make, Ermysted's is deemed best in the area for a child's progress in the key stage two to key stage three years, based on tests the children sit at age 10-11 (before they go to secondary school) and at 13-14, but is lower down for progress between 14 and GCSE.

Upper Wharfedale, Giggleswick and Skipton Girls are the top performers over both sets of results.

"The indicators showing the percentage of pupils achieving five or more GCSEs at grade A-C are useful as they provide information on how well schools are performing," explained the guidelines to the new tables.

"But it is also important to know the value each school adds to its pupils achievements. We know that some schools perform well in the performance tables but it is not always obvious which schools have helped pupils to make more progress from one stage of education to the next.

"The progress schools help their pupils to make compared to their different starting points is usually referred to as 'added value'.

"Pupils attending school A may achieve GCSE results above the expected levels while the pupils at school B may have made more progress than other pupils relative to their key stage three starting point and therefore school B has a higher value added score."

Skipton county councillor Mike Doyle, who sits on the education scrutiny committee, said the added value results for grammar schools were disappointing. He would have expected a figure of 104.

"The whole purpose of selection is to separate those children who can benefit from an academic education by providing added value," said Coun Doyle. "Their progress should demonstrate added value to justify the cost to the county of the selection process but these figures are purely average.

"Neither school is adding any more value to a child's innate skills than the bog standard comprehensive. The figures indicate a child who had gone to Upper Wharfedale would have achieved just the same GCSE results, possibly better, than at a grammar school."

He said Aireville's lower mark was due to the unique circumstances of its intake and higher proportion of disadvantaged children.

However, Tom Ashworth, head at Ermysted's, placed a different interpretation on the results.

"When you start from a higher base then there is not much further to take them," he said. "Quite frankly I was a little surprised that we finished so highly from key stage two to three. And from key stage three, when boys are achieving very high levels, from there to GCSE there is not much further to go."

He said that any tables were open to interpretation for political purposes but his school ignored such considerations and got on with the business of achieving very good results for its pupils.

North Yorkshire has finished as top local education authority in the north for GCSE results. It is ninth in the whole country.

o Key stage three covers years seven to nine at secondary (or in the case of north Craven, middle) school and national tests are taken at age 14. Key stage four covers years 10-11 and ends with GCSE or similar exams.