SECONDARY school headteachers across Carlisle say new provisional league tables do not 'accurately reflect' how students performed in this summer's GCSEs.

The Department of Education (DfE) has published provisional performance tables for all secondary schools across England ahead of next Wednesday's October 31 deadline for applications for year seven places for September 2019.

The early figures - including the progress and attainment of students - are based on GCSEs taken earlier this year.

Data highlights key performance measures including progress, attainment and percentages of pupils gaining good grades across a number of subjects in the English Baccalaureate (EBacc).

The proportion of pupils entering the EBacc and GCSE attainment both increased in 2018, the figures show.

Validated DfE figures will be published in January with headteachers in north Cumbria warning that provisional ones released on Wednesday will change.

GCSEs are undergoing their widest reforms for a generation with students sitting more papers. In August many more results were also awarded numerical 1-9 grades, for the first time, with 9 being the highest possible grade, compared to the old A*-G system.

The Carlisle Secondary Learning Consortium includes headteachers across the city as well as peers in Brampton and Wigton.

A group statement reads: "The difficulty of these new exams cannot be underestimated. The increased content and demands on students are now far higher than ever before and as a cohort they faced more exams than any students before them. Despite this the majority of students in our schools did well and we are proud of what they have achieved.

"The figures published are provisional and do not include the results that have increased due to remarks or the results that were missing due to mistakes by DfE.

"For some of schools there are a significant number of grades that are missing from the data that was used to calculate these figures. This means that the performance measures will improve for these schools and the data released does not accurately reflect how students have done."

The heads also say that the new grading system makes year on year comparisons "very difficult".

"Behind these figures there are significant number of children who have achieved fantastic results across the city," the group said.

"The performance measures focus on a narrow range of subjects, mainly the EBacc qualifications which not all schools compel their students to follow. Students in our schools study a wide range of subjects, such as music, art and technology, and the performance tables do not show how well they have done in these qualifications."

Concerns have also been raised by the National Association of Head Teachers which wants changes to how schools are held to account, to better reflect their effectiveness or a pupil's success.