THIS year's GCSE league tables reveal things are looking up for the town's secondary schools.

Some 52.8 per cent of Swindon's Year 11 students achieved five or more A* to C grades - a significant rise from last year's 47.3 per cent.

But Coun Garry Perkins, the council's lead member for children's services, says there is still more work to do and by 2010 he wants schools to be hitting at least 65 per cent.

The latest results, released by the Department for Education and Skills, break the results down for each local authority in the country.

They reveal that Swindon is enjoying a rise in results after the slump last year from its 2005 results where 56.5 per cent of pupils gained five A* to Cs.

But girls are still performing better than boys in exams, with 59.2 per cent achieving five or more A* to C grades, leaving boys trailing behind with 47.1 per cent.

Nationally the percentage of 15-year-old pupils achieving five or more A* to C grades has risen by 1.8 percentage points from 56.3 per cent to 58.1 per cent - the second biggest rise since 1997.

And to silence the critics who say exams are getting easier, the DfES has included an additional table showing the percentage of pupils who have gained five or more A* to Cs including English and maths - by 2008 these will be the only results released.

In Swindon 40.3 per cent of pupils have hit this target.

Steve O'Sullivan, Greendown headteacher and chairman of the Secondary Heads Association, is thrilled the town's schools can boast such improved results.

"I think there has been a good improvement in this year's results across the board and this improvement is down to the hard work of the pupils, teachers, parents and the local authority.

"It shows all of the hard work that's been going on in our schools over the last year."

Mr O'Sullivan said he recognises Swindon is still below the national results but says closing the gap is something for the town to aim for.

"What we do need to consider is the value added, which is added to our pupils, which is a clear signal of the quality of education that pupils in the town are getting."

Mr O'Sullivan thinks that schools should be accountable for the results they achieve but thinks it is difficult to compare different authorities who have differing amounts of money.

"Education is broader than league tables and in Swindon schools we have a thriving after-school scheme which gives the children lots of different experiences," he added.

Compared to our neighbouring authorities, Swindon is behind Wiltshire with 57.7 per cent of students achieving five or more A* to Cs, Oxfordshire with 55.9 per cent and Reading, with 53.7 per cent. Bristol gained 43.5 per cent.

But Coun Perkins (Con, Shaw and Nine Elms) believes this will change in the future.

"I am delighted with this year's results but there is still a lot of work left to do," he said.

"I will be happy when we achieve at least 65 per cent but ideally I want us to be hitting 70 per cent and I think by 2010 this could be possible. Some of our schools are already there and we just need to accelerate the work we are doing in the other schools to get them up there."

A-level passes are on the up

A-LEVEL students in Swindon are also performing better than they did last year, according to the Department for Education and Skills.

New figures reveal on average 242.8 A-level points were gained in the town this summer compared to 221.3 last year.

The national average result this year is 287.4 points.

In A-levels, 120 points is given for an A grade, 100 for a B, 80 for a C, 60 for a D, and 40 for an E.

Steven Colledge, headteacher at The Ridgeway School in Wroughton, which has a sixth-form, said: "The Ridgeway is very pleased with its results for GCSE and A-levels this year. There is a lot going on in Swindon's schools which has led to these results."

But Mr Colledge says the tables should not be looked at in isolation.

"I think we realise that there are different cohorts of pupils who get very different results each year depending on what local authority you are looking at," he said.

"What we all have is different pupils every year who do not all have the same academic records as those from the previous years. That's something that's not always understood by people who just look at the raw scores on their own."

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