EAST Lancashire schools have again been singled out by the Government for academic prowess and consistent improvements.

In the GCSE results league tables released today by the Department for Children, Schools and Families, six secondary schools in the area have been lauded for being some of the best in the country.

St Wilfrid's High School, Blackburn, and West Craven Technology College, Barn-oldswick, are celebrating being named among some of UK's top 200 most improved schools thanks to their year on year progress since 2004.

For academic achievement, Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar and Clitheroe Royal Grammar Schools are once again listed in the top 200 state schools, ranked by how many students achieve five or more A* to C grades including maths and English - both schools saw 100per cent student attainment.

And for Contextual Value Added measure, which the Government describes as "a much fairer measure of a school's effectiveness", Haslingden High School and Tauheedul Islam Girls' High School, Blackburn, are in the top 100. CVA shows how much progress students have made during their time at school, taking into account external factors such as prior attainment, gender and ethnicity. The benchmark is 1,000.

Haslingden High head Eve Challinger said: "Congrat-ulations once again to all our students on their fantastic achievement.

"CVA is the true indicator of a school's success because it measures the progress students make."

David Whyte, headteacher of St Wilfrid's, said: "We are obviously delighted that the hard work and dedication of staff and students over the last three academic years has seen a 16per cent improve-ment in our five A*-C performance including maths and English.

"The challenge now is to continue to focus on raising achievement and teaching and learning."

Overall, Blackburn and Darwen schools, and those under Lancashire County Council, which includes Hyndburn, Ribble Valley, Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale, have once again shown improvements but are still below average for GCSE attainment.

Both authorities have seen results just under the national figure of 62per cent gaining five or more A* to C grades. Lancashire continues to do slightly better, with 61.6per cent of pupils gaining that.

Blackburn and Darwen schools are on 59.9per cent, but that represents a record rise from 52per cent since 2006 results, and the borough also rated highly in CVA, with 1003.3 compared to Lancashire's 998.5.

For pupils gaining five or more A* to C grades including maths and English, Lancashire ranks slightly above the national average of 46.7per cent with 48.2per cent and Blackburn with Darwen has 43.7per cent.

Coun Chris Thayne, Blackburn with Darwen Council's executive member for children's services, said: "Our exceptionally high CVA shows that young people in Blackburn with Darwen make more progress than they do nationally.

"This is a record year of improvement and the massive 7.9per cent increase in the number of pupils achieving five or more A* to C grades has narrowed the gap."

County Coun Vali Patel, Lancashire's cabinet member for schools, said: "The overall GCSE results for Lancashire are very encouraging. We have made a good improvement on last year's results, and are above the national average for maintained schools, and I would like to congratulate heads, teachers and pupils on all their hard work.

"There have been very good performances by a number of schools, some of which show continued excellence while the results of others have significantly improved."