It’s official: Newham’s pupils are among the brainiest in the country.

The borough has come 23rd nationally in the new secondary school league tables for England, released By the Department of Education (DfE) on Thursday, January 6.

The figures - based on GCSE results achieved last summer - show that Newham's pupils are in the top 25 out of the 150 local authorities in England.

Although this is slightly down from last year's rank of 15, there are improvements in English and maths.

Overall, the progress that pupils from the end of primary school to the end of Key Stage 4 means that Newham is above the national average for every accountability measure.

Progress 8 scores for four schools in the borough are rated 'well above average', meaning that 20pc of Newham schools fall in this category in comparison to around 12 per cent nationally.

For the attainment 8 measure, Newham is ranked as 38th best in England - the same as 2018. This is an overall measure of attainment across eight subjects including English and maths.

Newham saw 64pc of pupils enter the English Baccalaureate (EBacc) range of qualifications - compared to just 40pc nationally.

To achieve the EBacc, pupils must take exams in English, maths, science, history or geography and a language.

Councillor Julianne Marriott, cabinet member for education, said: "It's fantastic news that our Newham schools are performing so well and that is down to the sheer hard work of our students, teachers and their families.

"We have amazing schools in Newham with our young people having opportunities to sing at the Albert Hall, learn engineering at Lego competitions and debating skills in debatemate - and they get great results too."

The tables are based on how pupils in each school performed in their GCSE exams and provide a picture of how well each school in the country is performing by tracking pupils' progress since they left primary school.