The latest secondary school league tables have been released, and they show that there was a slight rise in performance in the GCSE exams last summer in Essex, compared with the previous year.

A total of 60.5 per cent of pupils achieved five or more A*-C grades, or equivalent, including English and maths – the minimum level expected by the government at the end of key stage 4.

This was up 1.5 per cent on the 59 per cent recorded the year before, and puts the county in 82nd place in the country – while Suffolk linger towards the bottom of the table in 137th place.