BEXLEY'S Business Academy has hit back at suggestions it is one of the worst-performing secondary schools in the country.

The latest league tables for England and Wales, based on last year's GCSE results, show the Thamesmead school in the bottom 200.

Opened by Prime Minister Tony Blair in 2002, the academy replaced the former Thamesmead Community College in Yarnton Way.

Last summer 29 per cent of students achieved five A* to C GCSE grades, down from 34 per cent the previous year.

The academy's chief executive Sam Price claims the tables are an inaccurate measure of the academy's success.

She points out the community college it replaced was the second worst in the country with only two pupils passing a GCSE in its last year.

She says the academy takes in large numbers of pupils with special educational needs, including almost half of last year's GCSE students.

Seventy-nine per cent of this year's GCSE pupils have special needs.

She said: "It is naive to expect these schools to be top performers overnight.

"We are on a long journey and we are making sustainable strides."

And she says a more accurate guide to the school's performance was its last Key Stage 3 results for 14-year-olds, which showed a 140-per-cent improvement in English, 57 per cent in maths and 86 per cent in science, since the academy opened.

When the results take into account the progress pupils have made at the academy, it rates higher than five other Bexley schools.

Bexley's grammar schools top the borough league tables but non-selective schools also performed well, particularly church schools.

Townley Girls Grammar School, Bexleyheath, scored 100 per cent for five top GCSE grades, with the other three grammar schools in the high 90s.

St Catherine's RC Girls' School, Bexleyheath, and St Mary and St Joseph's RC School, Sidcup, achieved 72 per cent, followed by St Columba's RC Boys School, Bexleyheath, with 64 per cent, Blackfen School for Girls, Blackfen, with 62 per cent and Hurstmere Boys' School, Sidcup, with 53 per cent.

When value is added, Trinity CofE School, Belvedere, comes top of the non-selective schools.