Hundreds of south-east London children are being taught at under-performing secondary schools, according to official figures.

Seven schools in Greenwich, Bexley and Lewisham fell below the Government's performance threshold in 2018, which happens if students fail to make enough progress across eight subjects, particularly in English and maths.

A secondary school is considered to be below the Government's floor standard if, on average, pupils score half a grade less (-0.5) across eight GCSEs than they would have been expected to compared to pupils of similar abilities nationally.

READ MORE: Halley Academy set for redundancies to avoid falling into deficit

Figures show a total of 346 English secondary schools, which make up 11.6 per cent of state-funded schools, failed to meet these standards last year.

This data shows 282,603 pupils in England were being taught in under-performing facilities.

In 2017, 365 schools fell below the floor standard, but the figures are not directly comparable.

This is because the latest data does not apply to university technical colleges or further education colleges with 14-16 provision or studio schools.

School leaders said performance tables are "long past their sell-by date", urging the public to take into consideration the data used to compile them.

MORE: Waterfront Leisure Centre to close as move is approved by council

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: "Performance tables can never tell the full story of a school and we urge parents and governors not to place too much weight on them.

"The secondary school performance tables are inherently flawed in that the headline measure of Progress 8 which is used to judge the performance of schools effectively penalises schools which have a high proportion of disadvantaged children.

"The effect of this is to stigmatise these schools, making it more difficult to recruit headteachers and teachers and demoralising pupils, parents and communities."

He added: "Current performance tables are long past their sell-by date.

"We urgently need fairer performance measures which better recognise the achievements of schools that teach the most vulnerable pupils."

The seven south-east London schools which failed to meet Government standards in 2018 are as follows:

Bexleyheath Academy, Bexleyheath

News Shopper:

Welling School, Welling

News Shopper:

Conisborough College, Catford

News Shopper:

Stationers' Crown Woods Academy, Eltham

News Shopper:

The John Roan School, Maze Hill

News Shopper:

Cleeve Park School, Sidcup

News Shopper:

Sedgehill School, Catford

News Shopper:

News Shopper will be contacting each school for comment.