A secondary schools in Watford is 'underperforming', but overall the county's schools are outshining those in the rest of England.

That's according to government statistics published today, which show that nearly 300 secondary schools nationally are failing to meet minimum targets at GCSE level.

Watford UTC was the only secondary in the town failing to make the grade.

The college in Colonial Way teaches pupils aged between 14 and 19. 

A full breakdown will be on the website later today

This is the first year schools have been judged according to the Progress 8 measure, which assesses how much pupils have improved between leaving primary school and finishing secondary school.

A positive score generally indicates students are doing better than expected, while a negative one shows the reverse.

Ministers claim this is a fairer way of ranking schools than the old method, which was based on the proportion of students getting five or more C grade GCSEs including maths. 

Schools minister Nick Gibb said: "Today's figures confirm that the hard work of teachers and pupils across the country is leading to higher standards, and for that they should be congratulated."

He added that the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers had narrowed by seven per cent since 2011, and there were now nearly 1.8 million more children in good and outstanding schools than in 2010.

Malcolm Trobe, interim general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "Congratulations to schools and pupils on these results, which have been achieved against a national backdrop of a funding and recruitment crisis."

He described Progress 8 as a fairer measure of performance than what it replaced, but warned that the results could be distorted by as few as one or two children at a school missing exams due to illness or a personal crisis.