SCHOOLS across East Lancashire today posted improved GCSE results -- but many are failing to help children reach their full potential.

According to the Government's controversial league tables, the percentage of children getting at least five GCSEs at grades A* to C in Blackburn with Darwen rose from 38.8per cent to 43.1per cent.

The figures show that Blackburn with Darwen students are now closing the gap on the national average, with the borough trailing 10.6% below the national average, compared to a gap of 14.1 per cent this time last year.

Within the rest of Lancashire -- including the East Lancashire boroughs of Ribble Valley, Hyndburn, Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale -- 53.8per cent of students took home five or more GCSEs with higher grades, 0.1per cent higher than the national average.

But 'value added' figures paint a different picture of the area's schools. Valued added is the complex score the Department for Education and Skills uses to work out if pupils are reaching their full potential, based on performances in earlier tests.

More than half of East Lancashire's secondary schools failed to attain the Government's benchmark score of 1,000, meaning pupils at some schools are coming away with GCSE grades lower than results from previous tests would suggest. A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said: "1000 is the benchmark, but the national average will be below that this year. The aim for all schools is to reach 1,000."

Particular success stories in the area include Moorland High School, Darwen. Despite being placed in special measures just weeks before the exam season started last year, the school returned an eight per cent rise in GCSE results -- up to 30 per cent.

Head Gareth Dawkins said: "Praise has to go to both pupils and staff for getting stuck in and doing so well.

"It would have been easy for pupils to feel cheated and let down, but they worked incredibly hard.

"Our value added score also shows that our form overall is very good, and we will continue to improve."

Both Norden High School, Rishton, and Our Lady and St John's RC in Blackburn were named among the 200 most improved high schools in the country for GCSE results.

That list only included schools which have recorded improvements for the past four years.

Rhyddings Business and Enterprise School, Oswaldtwistle, was also on the list.

Head Barry Burke said: "We have had year on year improvements and it's down to the hard work of the kids, the parents and the teachers.

"But it's also a reflection of the way the school has embraced the opportunities that the reforms in education have allowed us to bring into schools."

Westholme School, Blackburn, was named in the top 200 for GCSE results nationally.