With exam fever gripping teenagers across the nation the Croydon Guardain took a look at which schools in the borough have been best at improving students’ grades.

Secondary school pupils are now judged on a system called Progress 8 which was introduced by the Department for Education in 2016. It tracks students’ progress in eight subjects, from when they leave primary school to when they finish secondary school.

A score of 0 means pupils on average do about as well at the end of secondary school than children with similar grades at the end of primary school nationally.

Anything higher than this means that kids are doing better on average than their peers nationally.

Here are the top five for attainment in Croydon:

Coloma Convent, Shirley

This girls school in Upper Shirley Road scored ‘well above average’ with a score of 0.89 on the Progress 8 system. This puts the Catholic maintained school in the top 14% in the country and was based on 142 girls sitting their GCSEs.

Riddlesdown Collegiate, Purley

Like Coloma this Academy school is also in the top 14% in the country with the 294 students getting a score of 0.59. Last year the school of nearly 2,000 pupils was one of about 60 schools to be awarded the World Class Schools status. Alumni at this school includes supermodel and Croydon girl Kate Moss.

Harris Academy, Crystal Palace

This school in Maberley Road opened in 1990 to replace the under-performing Sylvan High School. It became an academy in 2007 and last year got a Progress 8 score of 0.46.

Norbury Manor Business and Enterprise College for Girls, Thornton Heath.

The second girls’ school in the top five, Norbury Manor has an above average score of 0.4 with a smaller year group of 99 pupils. It converted to an academy in 2012 and has a ‘good’ Ofsted rating.

Archbishop Tenison’s CofE High School, Croydon

In 1714, Thomas Tenison, the Archbishop of Canterbury, founded a school for some ten poor boys and ten poor girls near Croydon town centre. More than 300 years and three sites later, it is thought that this Croydon school is the oldest surviving mixed-gender school in the world. The school also has an above average Progress 8 score of 0.34 in 2018.