THREE East Lancashire secondary schools were today named among the top 200 in the country in the national education league tables.

And more than half of the area's 49 schools included in the government tables based on GCSE results have retained or improved their performance from last year. Twenty have not done as well.

But despite huge improvements in the number of children gaining at least five GCSE grades A* to C, results for 28 East Lancashire secondary schools, within Blackburn with Darwen and Lancashire County Council education authority areas, remain below both the national and county average of 48 per cent.

At the top of the tables for schools in East Lancashire is Blackburn's Westholme School, where all pupils gained five or more top grade GCSEs in this summer's exams.

The private school, which also topped the tables last year, is closely followed by Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School in Waterfoot and Clitheroe Royal Grammar School in the Ribble Valley, where 99 per cent of pupils gained at least five top grades.

All three schools are included in the government's list of the top 200 schools in the country, though East Lancashire secondaries lower down the table have also come in for praise.

Blackburn's Beardwood School has improved its GCSE results this year and been named among the top 40 most improved schools in the country by the Chief Inspector of Schools.

Headteacher Roger Eckton is looking forward to attending a Celebrating Success in Schools seminar in London next month after Education Secretary David Blunkett identified the school as "being especially successful in the past year". He said: "We are thoroughly delighted. It is significant and important that we are improving. Exam results depend on the quality and range of pupils in any year group and as we are not a selective school, we have to work with the children we get.

"Schools which cream off the best academic children should expect to get a high level of success but we are equally proud of what our children achieve."

The school has improved the number of pupils gaining five or more top grade GCSEs from 31 per cent last year to 34 per cent in this year's exams, with 93 per cent of pupils gaining five GCSE grades A* to G.

Other schools which significantly improved GCSE results this year include Blackburn's Queen's Park High School, which improved the number of children gaining five or more GCSE grades A* to C by 10 per cent, St Theodore's RC High School, Burnley, which climbed 28 places to 37th in Lancashire, and Accrington's Mount Carmel RC High School, which improved it's GCSE results and moved 24 places up the league to 44th place.

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