Barnet secondary schools on the whole are performing above the national average under the government’s new method of calculating league tables.

Progress 8, used by the government for the first time over the past year, is used to chart pupils’ improvement from leaving primary to finishing secondary school.

It measures change in attainment across eight subjects and, through complex mathematics, assigns a score to each pupil where 0 is the national average, negative numbers are below and positive numbers are above.

League table figures released by the Department for Education yesterday show Barnet schools have an average 0.33 Progress 8 score, meaning the borough is above the national average.

Of the 22 secondary schools given a Progress 8 score – special and independent school are exempt – six have a score considered “well above” the national average.

These include the Compton School (0.79) and Wren Academy (0.78) in Finchley, Queen Elizabeth’s School (0.70) in Barnet and Ashmole Academy (0.57) in Southgate.

Four Barnet schools received a negative Progress 8 score, while only two are considered “below” the national average rather than “average” by the DfE.

St Mary’s Church of England High School (-0.40) in Hendon and the Totteridge Academy (-0.45) were both marked for improvement in the new figures.

All 12 remaining, positive-scoring schools in Barnet are marked either “average” or “above” the national average.

The Henrietta Barnett School in Hampstead Garden Suburb was the top-performing school for GCSEs in the country, going by its Attainment 8 score.

Attainment 8 measures the actual grades of pupils, rather than their individual progress like Progress 8, with Henrietta Barnett scoring 78.5, higher than anywhere else.