AN academy in Bolton has been named as one of 329 under-performing schools in the country.

Bolton St Catherine’s Academy was one of the 300-plus schools named for falling below the Government's floor targets following the publication of the department for education’s annual performance tables based on every school’s performance in the GCSE exams last summer.

The school in Breightmet saw only 30 per cent of pupils leave with five or more A* C grades including English and maths in their GCSEs. The Government benchmark is 40 per cent.

But 41 per cent of pupils left with five or more good GCSEs in any subject.

Academy bosses said they were disappointed with the results, saying a change in grade boundaries — which other schools have fallen foul of in previous years — had an impact on the numbers of pupils gaining the benchmark standard.

They added they were expecting this summer's overall result to be above the floor target.

Phil Deakin, business manager at Bolton St Catherine’s Academy, said: “We are disappointed to be below the target.

“We were predicting above the target based on the mock results which were externally marked.

“The change of grade boundaries by the exam boards we use affected our students.

“We are really pleased with some of the GCSE results.

“With the new measure of every student coming in next year we are confident the results will be better and over the national target.”

The change of grade boundaries affected the maths and English grades.

There are 3,300 state secondaries in England.

Of those that did not make the benchmark, 312 failed to ensure that at least 40 per cent of their pupils gained at least five C grades at GCSE, including English and maths, and that students make good enough progress in these two core subjects.

The other 17 schools were among 327 schools that opted in to a new "Progress 8" performance measure — which looks at the progress of pupils across eight subjects — and fell below a certain threshold for this target.

This is the last time England’s state secondary schools are being rated for the last time on the proportion of pupils achieving five good GCSEs.

From next year, all schools will be measured against "Progress 8".

The new benchmark is based on the progress pupils make from the end of primary school up to their results across eight GCSE subjects: English and maths; three choices from the range of traditional English Baccalaureate subjects — sciences, computer science, geography, history and foreign languages — and three subjects which can either be from the EBacc set or any other approved arts, academic or vocational qualification.