OUTSTANDING was how most schools in Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale summed up their students' GCSE grades today.

St Hilda's High in Burnley registered a record year with 73 per cent of pupils gaining five or more A* to C grades.

Eight pupils gained ten A* and A grades, nine students gained nine A* and A grades and 12 per cent of the year group got at least nine A* and A grades.

The number of students at Burnley's Habergham High achieving five or more A* to C grades was 60 per cent - 12 per cent above the national average

Headteacher David Clayton heralded the results as "brilliant" saying: "This for pupils who were well below the national average in their national tests five years ago. That is extraordinary value-added." The top 15 students gained 76 A* and 64 A grades and outstanding performers were: Clare Smith and Christopher Visser who both got eight A* and two As, Sarah Ball recorded seven A* and three As and Sarah Crossley got six A* and four As.

New head at St Theodore's High, in Burnley, John Tat proclaimed his school's results as "outstanding" with 55 per cent achieving five or more A* to C passes.

Burnley's Ivy Bank High School had 37 per cent of candidates gained five or more grades A* to C and individual stars include David Mossop who recorded three A*, four A and one B and Leah Cimino and John Pooley who both got two A*, five A and two Bs. Headteacher Stephen Ball said: "Improvement of the magnitude that we have seen at Ivy Bank is really quite exceptional - even by national standards."

Barden High School, Burnley, headteacher Dr Adrian Lythgoe said: "We only had 50 pupils in the year group and they performed in line with expectations with 18 per cent gaining A to C grades."

Last year 36 per cent of students achieved higher passes, and Dr Lythgoe said he expected next year's results would be better.

Towneley High School, Burnley, refused to give the number of A* to C grades and so did Fearns High School, Stacksteads,

But Rawtenstall's All Saints High School released full information - 43 per cent of students gained five or more A* to C grades and 30 per cent gained eight or more A* to C grades.

Four pupils, Serena D'Ambrosia, Carolyn Greaves, Timothy Farragher and Paul Lord gained 11 GCSE passes.

Pupils at Fisher-More High, Colne, put in a star performance at GCSE, gaining more A* grades than ever before.

Some 48 per cent of students achieved five or more A* to C grades, a slight decrease on last year, with a quarter of the year group getting nine or more subjects at that level.

Among the "star" performers were Nicholas Watson and Rebecca Villiers who each achieved ten A passes, Stephanie Swift and Lisa Quinn who each got nine As and a B, and James Armstrong who received eight As and a B.

A spokesman at West Craven High, Barnoldswick, said results were up on last year's.

"The overall performance is ahead of last year's," he said. "We had a pass rate for five grades A* to C of just under 40 per cent which is several points ahead of last year. We're very pleased."

The heads of Pendle's schools have an agreement not to release GCSE results to the Press for a week to allow any students who are away on holiday or not able to pick up their results today to find out how they have gone on before it is made known generally.

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