Schools in York are continuing their success in helping youngsters gain excellent GCSE results, new government figures revealed today (Thursday, January 23).

City of York Council today welcomed the latest figures which showed that 56.4 per cent of children in York's secondary schools leave with five or more A to C grade GCSEs compared to 51.5 per cent nationally.

The new figures confirm York's year-on-year improvement in the number of youngsters leaving its schools with good range of qualifications.

The Department for Education and Skills today published the final GCSE results for 2002 along with Key Stage 3 and GNVQ examination figures. The DfES analysis also shows that:

York schools have improved every year since 1998 with performance improving by 7.5 percentage points from 48.9 per cent to 56.4 per cent in 2002. The number of students achieving at least one GCSE has also increased over the last four years. Currently almost 96 per cent of pupils achieved this mark compared to 94.6 per cent nationally. York pupils also performed well at Key Stage 3, significantly outperforming the national average with the percentage of pupils in York achieving Level 5 or above (the expected level for 13 year olds) at 71 per cent in English, 73 per cent in Mathematics and 73 per cent in Science. This compares very favourably with the national average of 67 per cent for all three subjects. The government's new added value assessment, in its first year and based on the progress made by individual pupils from one stage of their education to another, shows that: The Key Stage 2/3 value added performance of three schools in York was in the top 25 per cent of all schools nationally. Two schools also performed well above the national value added average. Between Key Stages 3 and 4 the value added performance of two schools in York was in the top 25 per cent of all schools nationally and overall, Overall, at both Key Stages 2 and 3 and Key Stages 3 and 4, York schools' value added performance was broadly in line with the national average (100). Patrick Scott, the council's director of education and leisure said, "I am really pleased that again, York pupils have made excellent progress at all national curriculum levels. The success of this year's Key Stage 3 results should also provide a good platform for future successes at GCSE."

Councillor Janet Looker, the council's executive member for education, added "This is an excellent set of results. We have always set ourselves very challenging targets and will continue to do so in the coming years. "I believe that all pupils in York can make good progress and that the value added by schools, like the exam results themselves, will continue to improve each year." END More information: Details of all results and information on interpreting the information (including 'value added' measures for schools) can be found on the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) website - www.dfes.gov.uk - under statistics.