Ref. 28619-11SCHOOLS in Swindon are improving nearly twice as fast as the rest of the country, according to the latest GCSE league tables.

But although the results are getting better, more work is needed if the borough is to reach the national average.

And while the latest performance tables are good news for GCSE students, A-level results are still lagging way behind.

Last year, 49.1 per cent of secondary school students in Swindon achieved the national benchmark of five GCSEs between grades A* and C. The Wiltshire figure is 57.6

The figure is a 2.2 per cent increase on the previous year nearly double the national rate of improvement of 1.3 per cent.

But although Swindon's schools gained ground, the figure is still behind the national average of 52.9 per cent.

There were, however, several success stories, and the majority of schools performed better than average.

Ridgeway School in Wroughton where the figure went up by four per cent to 71 per cent remains at the top of the league.

But the school which achieved the biggest increase in the number of students hitting the benchmark was Hreod Parkway, where the number of pupils getting five passes in the A* to C grades went up 13 per cent to 43 per cent.

The school came out of special measures just over two years ago and headteacher Andrew Fleet said: "We have consistently improved over the last three years.

"We are achieving these results through robust teaching and planning, closely monitoring students' work and investing in specialist staff.

"We also have a good relationship with parents, and a mentoring scheme which encourages children to do well."

The school has also bucked the national trend by closing the gender gap between girls and boys.

St Joseph's School performed best in terms of 'value added' which shows how much progress students made between their Key Stage 3 exams at 14 and their GCSEs.

Scores of 100 mean pupils achieved what they were predicted to get when they took their Key Stage 3 tests.

With a score of 102.6, St Joseph's is in the top quarter of all schools in the country in terms of progress.

Students at Headlands School, which has a high percentage of students with special needs, made the worst progress.

With a value added score of 94.3, the school was ranked alongside the lowest five per cent in the country.

Unfortunately, improvements at GCSE level were not matched in the borough's sixth forms and colleges.

With an average point score per pupil of 203 worked out at 120 for A to 40 for an E Swindon's students were 56 points behind the national average of 259. The Wiltshire figure is 244.9

Commenting on the GCSE results, Keith Defter, head of Commonweal and chairman of the Swindon Association of Secondary Heads, said: "The rate of improvement is even more impressive given what we have experienced in the last three years.

"The LEA failed its Ofsted report and we have had a crisis in funding and in staff recruitment and retention.

"But although we are making progress on the national average, we are not complacent and every head teacher in Swindon is committed to making further progress."

Nationally all-girl and comprehensive schools were the best "value added" secondary schools last year.

Grammar schools were given a boost last month when league tables for England showed that they were better than comprehensives at boosting attainment between the ages of 11 and 14.

But the tables show that comprehensives led the way when it came to "adding value" in both the 11 to 14 and the 14 to 16 age groups.

Out of the 133 schools in the top 25 per cent for both educational stages 97 were comprehensives.