HABERGHAM High School, Burnley, is celebrating after being named as one of the country's best state schools.

Habergham is among 63 English secondary schools to be given special praise in the annual report by the Office for Standards in Education, published on Tuesday.

Just three per cent of the 5,000 schools inspected in 1995-6 are named in the report by Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Schools, Chris Woodhead.

The chosen schools are those which received the best inspection reports and gained good GCSE results.

Habergham's headteacher, David Clayton, said he was delighted with the accolade, which he described as a public acknowledgement of the efforts of pupils, staff and parents.

"We knew that our inspection report from September 1995 was relatively good," Mr Clayton told the Citizen. "And the GCSE results in the summer of 1996 were our best ever.

"But I had no idea we had been named in the inspector's report. It came out of the blue. I am very pleased indeed."

He said the school prided itself on excellence in non-academic pursuits as well as GCSE results.

"All schools want good exam results," he said. "But it is right that activities such as sport and music are recognised too."

Habergham's success follows that of another Burnley high school, St Hilda's, which was named in last year's report.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.