RECEIVING three national awards for sporting achievement was one of the highlights applauded at Accrington Moorhead Sports College's awards evening.

Head Andrew Bateman summarised the successes of the past academic year at the Queen's Road West school last night.

"This evening is a celebration of success - success for the individual students who have excelled in some aspect of the curriculum but also success for the school community," Mr Bateman told an audience including the Mayor and Mayoress of Hyndburn, Coun Tony and Mrs Trish Dobson.

He congratulated returning Year 11 students on helping the school achieve some of its best GCSE results - 61 per cent of them gained five or more A* to C GCSEs, a 21per cent rise on last year and 40per cent more than in 2004.

The school's progress has put it into the top five per cent of schools nationwide for Value Added.

As well as receiving three out of 18 national awards for the Living for Sport Programme, Moorhead also gained Charter Football Club status this year.

PRIZEWINNERS >>>

YEAR 11 - Exceptional GCSE: N Afsar, Z Ali, W Aslam (ICT), T Aziz (PE), Saiqa Bashir (Geog), Shabnam Bashir, S Bi (Maths, Science), L Braysford (drama), H Dawson (History), M Edwards, Joanna Foster (service to school), D Fox (drama), A Heap (PE), L Heap, J Hilton (English, History), F Howorth, A Hussain (Literacy), W Hussain (Literacy), A Isherwood (service to school), E Jahangir (maths, geog), T Jones, M Kerrison (Food Tech and service to school), A Khali (Science, English, ICT), A Khan (Health and Social Care), S Khan (Art).

D MacMillan (Grapics, Technology), S Martin, M Taylor (Health and Social Care), J Tomlinson (service to school), S Williams (Art, Textiles, Technology), B Yates (service to school), A Younis (Resistant Materials tech).

Year 7 to 10: Academic Achievement: M Ashraf, K Connell, R Downs, A Duckett, J Garraway, I Gilbert, T Howarth, A Lonsdale, C Makin, L Martin, L Mitchell, L Monk, S Parry, A Quraishi-Rewaj, R Rawstron, J Rogan, M Taylor, A Threlfall, L Walsh, C Wright, D Yates, J Ann, J Aspin, A Bamber, T Begum, L Broadhurst, B Cole, C Crossey, B Cryer, L Gregson, E Haire, J Hall, V Horjkovs, H Jahangir, H Jahanzeb, K MacMillan, A Malik, J Martin, R Naisbitt, E Neil, J Rigby, F Shaw, L Slattery, R Szabo, S Tattersall, C Thomas, A Whittaker.

Exceptional SATs achievement; G Aslam, N Bristow, K Dickinson, A Dunn, N Everitt, J Geddes, J Haworth, Z Haworth, Z Haworth, J Howarth, I Johnson, A Meadows, C Mills, J Osbaldeston, T Parkinson, D Pilkington, P Sidhu, Z Simpson, A Smith, E Stepans, A Sturgess, J Taylor, N Thorpe, S Warbrick, J Westwell.

Year 10 progress and achievement: E Boillat (art), A Bolton, R Brereton (PE), S Doherty (history), D Duffy (drama, product design tech), E Hamer (drama health and social care), D Haworth (sports personality), K Marshall (science), R Watts, H Ahmed (food tech), K Demaine, R Duncan (maths, science), S Hamid, J Dowling (textiales),N Wasim, S Nield. C Gerrard health and social care. H Jahanzeb, R Mullin (literacy), A Shepherd (PE), J Smith (technology), A Whittaker (geog), S Doran (literacy), A Taylor (ICT), S Taylor (geog), T Ashraf, S Cadman, S Hussain, G Steer.