Tens of thousands of teenagers are still being failed by poor secondary schools, which are failing to meet Government targets, league tables suggested today.

Newly-published statistics show that more than 200 secondaries in England – including Telford’s Lord Silkin – are failing to meet tough new targets set by the Government at the end of last year.

That is about seven per cent of schools with valid and published results.

But today’s tables do confirm that Telford & Wrekin’s schools are among the most rapidly improving in the country while Shropshire Council-run schools recorded their best GCSE and A-level results last summer.

Four county schools – Newport Girls High, Adams Grammar at Newport, Thomas Telford, and Shrewsbury Girls High – feature in the top 200 performers nationally at GCSE.

In total, at 216 secondary schools across England with valid results, less than 35 per cent of pupils got at least five C grades in their GCSEs, including English and maths, and fewer youngsters made two levels of progress between 11 and 16 than the national average in the two subjects.

According to the figures, the national average for making expected progress in English this year was 72 per cent and for maths it was 65 per cent.

Schools that fail to reach the target have been warned they will be tagged as “underperforming” and face closure or being taken over.

At the Lord Silkin, 32 per cent of pupils achieved the benchmark five top grades.

About a quarter of those listed in the league table of the worst 200 schools in the country are academies.

The full results are inside today’s Shropshire Star