A MISTAKE over secondary school league tables published on Thursday spelled frustration for staff at Radcliffe Riverside.

A Government mix-up meant that results for hundreds of former Coney Green pupils were omitted from a combined figure for the new school.

Instead, the Department for Education and Skills (DFES) gave only details for Radcliffe High under the new name Radcliffe Riverside. Tables show the school in sixteenth place out of 17 in the borough, with an average total point score for final year pupils of 251.9.

However, head Diana Morton said that figure would have been significantly boosted by the results for Coney Green, now the school's East Campus.

She said: "While we are pleased with the results for Radcliffe High, we would expect the figure to be much higher if the results for Coney Green had been included.

"I think it is unfair that these tables do not show how well things are going on the East campus.

"It is hard enough for us to get across how well these changes have gone, without the DFES muddying the waters for us.

"I have now told them to either publish both sets of figures separately, or combine them together."

Mrs Morton said the Radcliffe High results showed that extra funding for challenging circumstances had paid off at the Abden Street school. She said: "We are very pleased. There has been an increase of nearly ten per cent in the number of pupils gaining five or more A to Cs."

Top place for the borough went to Manchester Jewish Grammar, which became a Bury voluntary-aided school last November.