Highworth Warneford, the school which topped the first league table back in 1994, is yet again the best performing secondary school in the Swindon area.

Only once has it been knocked off the top in 1995 by St Joseph's RC comprehensive.

Headteacher John Saunders said: "Naturally I am very pleased. It is always nice when youngsters do well. But these are only raw figures and they should be looked at very carefully. It's difficult to compare schools which are not really the same.

"And these tables do not reflect the added value a school can give a pupil the progress he or she actually makes during their time in the school.

"And while we did not do as well as last year, these pupils worked no less hard for their results.You cannot expect results to go up every year, it just does not work that way.

"But we were pleased with the number of pupils who came away with A* or A grades.

"There is no secret to our success. It's down to hard work by the pupils and staff, and supportive parents and governors."

The top four have not changed from last year Highworth, Wootton Bassett, Ridgeway and Bradon Forest although Ridgeway, moved up to third and Bradon Forest dropped to fourth.

But, unlike last year, only five per cent separated the top four schools when it came to the numbers getting five or more GCSE passes at grade A-C the equivalent of the old O-level.

Highworth recorded 65 per cent, four less than last year, Wootton Bassett 62 (63 last year) Ridgeway 61 (60) and Bradon Forest 60 (63).

The national average was 49 per cent, and eight of the area's 12 schools either achieved or bettered this. But the figures for the area's schools were generally down on last year, even in the top performing four schools.

Exceptions to the rule were Dorcan and Churchfields, who have both acquired specialist school status, Dorcan for technology and Churchfields for art.

They improved their A-C pass rate from 38 to 46 per cent and from 37 to 43 per cent respectively.

Commonweal, fifth last year, dropped to eighth with a 10 per cent drop in the pass rate, Kingsdown maintained its fifth place, Greendown moved from eighth to sixth, St Joseph's dropped one place to seventh.

The bottom two schools, Hreod and Headlands, both dipped, Hreod from 28 to 23 per cent and Headlands from 18 to 11 per cent.