Fifty-one per cent of students achieved five or more A* to C grades, including English and Maths, in their GCSEs and equivalent qualifications.

This places the Academy in 31st place (and therefore in the top 1% nationally) in a league table published in The Telegraph revealing the top 100 most improved secondary state schools in England. The leagues tables are based on data from the Department of Education comprising the GCSE and equivalent results for examinations taken at all types of schools in England in summer 2013.

Lynn Robinson, Deputy Registrar (Academic Services), University of Bristol and one of the three University governors of the school, said: ‘These results are very pleasing and the Academy’s staff and pupils are to be congratulated.  There is, of course, progress still to be made, but this is a clear indication of the Academy’s positive trajectory and of the benefits of our partnership.’

Merchants’ Academy in Withywood was founded in 2008 and is sponsored by the University and the Society of Merchant Venturers. It received an overwhelmingly positive Ofsted inspection in 20011.