THE controversial city academies programme - pioneered in the North-East - has received a boost after one was named among the best schools in the country for the progress of its students.

The King's Academy, in Coulby Newham, Middlesbrough, is in the top ten per cent of maintained schools in England for performance.

It received a "contextual value added" (CVA) score of 1020.2, which means its pupils make significantly more progress than the average. The school recently recorded its best GCSE level, ALevel and English Sats results.

The CVA system measures the impact a school has from the time a child joins from primary school to when they are 16.

Chris Drew, principal at King's, said: "The national average CVA score is 1,000 and anything above that is regarded as very pleasing.

"A score as high as 1020.2 for a school that is only in its fourth year since opening is nothing short of remarkable. The academy was created to make a positive difference to the achievement of all children and measures like CVA show that we are succeeding in that.

"It's an important measure for a school like ours, where we have the full range of abilities, including four times the national average of students with special educational needs."

It was found this year that academies were doing "substantially better" at GCSE level than the average secondary schools.

In the 12 months to last year, the proportion of academy pupils gaining five or more A*-C grades rose by 5.8 per cent - compared with 2.5 per cent in all schools.

Three of the UK's first academies were opened in Middlesbrough - Unity City Academy, The King's Academy and Macmillan Academy.