A PENARTH private school has been ranked the seventh best performing independent school in Wales, in a new study commissioned by The Sunday Times.

Westbourne School was named 204th in the UK in 25th edition of Parent Power, The Sunday Times School Guide.

The guide, published last weekend, identifies the 2,000 highest-achieving schools in the country, ranked by examination results.

The Hickman Road school made the list thanks in large part to the exceptional results achieved by its sixth form this year, with students awarded the equivalent of A* to B grades in 76.2 per cent of subjects studied.

Students at the Westbourne do not follow the traditional A-level curriculum and are instead taught the International Baccalaureate, for which they are awarded points instead of lettered grades to assess their performance.

The school’s UK ranking of 204th is also an improvement on last year’s 217th.

But school chairman Mark Peters said that while he was pleased with the recognition, he felt other guides offer a truer reflection of the school’s performance.

“It’s excellent news, of course,” he said.

“It’s a little unfair to compare the grades in the International Baccalaureate to those in A-levels, but it is at least simple and digestible.

“We think the Daily Telegraph uses a better measure, A*-A, which has shown that we have come at the very top in the UK for the past three years.”

He added: “The school is in incredibly rude health.

“We’ve got the strongest management team and group of teachers that there have been in my time here.

“We’re proud of what we’ve achieved and excited for our future.”