GCSE results for every secondary school in the area have declined, according to government figures released today.

The league tables, which are published by the Department for Education, compare every school in the country based on 2014 Key Stage 4 exam results.

This year’s figures are calculated differently than in previous years following a government shake-up on which subjects can be counted and disallowing test resits in the data.

Some vocational subjects which used to count towards the GCSE pass rate no longer do and a new ‘first entry’ rule means schools cannot enter the ‘best’ result for a pupil who has re-sat an exam.

The changes appear to affected non-selective schools most, which traditionally have a larger proportion of students taking vocational courses.

Sittingbourne Community College, which became an academy in January 2012, registered one of the steepest drop in results with just 22% of pupils achieving at least five A* to C grades in their GCSEs. This is compared to 44% in 2013.

Fellow Swale Academies Trust school, Westlands, similarly saw a dip in its number of pupils achieving five good GCSEs, which went from 65% in 2013 to 43% last year. The drop follows years of Westlands’ results steadily improving.

SCC headteacher Fiona Trigwell defended her school’s record saying the ‘first entry’ rule means the league table results are skewed because they only show what a student achieved the first time they sat an exam (generally in November) rather than when they sat the exam in the summer.

She added: “It’s not fair that the government has done this - it’s not a true reflection of the achievements of the school or the students. Some students really benefit from making their mistakes on the first entry [and] they go on from that and they gain better grades.”

Her comments were echoed by Swale Academies Trust head, Jon Whitcombe, who pointed out that the percentage of children with five A* to C grades in both of the Trust’s secondary schools was actually far higher than the league tables indicated when the first entry rule is ignored - 66% for Westlands and 46% for SCC.

He said: “The league tables are nonsense, they mean nothing. League tables paint a very narrow picture about a school’s performance.”

Other Sittingbourne schools also had their percentage of youngsters managing five A* to C grades drop, although by smaller margins.

Fulston Manor School, on Brenchley Road, which is part of the Fulston Academy Trust, went from 54% in 2013 to 52% in 2014; Highsted Grammar School registered a dip of 1% from 99% to 98% and Borden Grammar School achieved 91% - down 1% on last year.

The full Kent Schools league tables can be found here: www.education.gov.uk/schools/performance/geo/la886_all.html