EDUCATION chiefs are celebrating a steady success in this year's GCSE 'league tables' -- but have warned parents the results may not be an accurate guide to a school.

Results in Lancashire, published last week, continued to exceed the national average. However the proportion of pupil's achieving grades A to C, and the total points score, only increased in line with the national average.

County Councillor Alan Whittaker, cabinet member for education and young people, said Lancashire's schools should be proud of their consistent progress but that there was more to a school than these figures.

Overall most Preston and South Ribble schools recorded improvements, in particular Lostock Hall Community High School where students obtaining five GCSEs at grade C or above rose substantially for the second successive year. In 1999, 32 percent achieved it, but now 51 percent of pupils have the five high-grade GCSEs. Headteacher of the Lostock Hall school, David Lowe, said: "The success is the result of superb teaching, parental support and pupil commitment. We are delighted." But Fulwood High School, Black Bull Lane, Fulwood, recorded an 11 point drop to 38 percent in the number of pupils obtaining five GCSEs at grade C and above.

Jack Bennett, Lancashire County Council's acting director of education, said: "If an individual school has a lower proportion of pupils achieving five or more GCSE passes, it does not imply that it's performing less well.

"It may be performing very well and have a high proportion of pupils for whom attaining these passes is a major achievement. Schools should be judged by a broad range of measures alongside performance tables."