NEARLY three quarters of Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale High schools fell below par in national GCSE league tables released today.

The figures show only six of the area's 21 secondaries beating or matching the Lancashire-wide and all-England average of 48 per cent of pupils achieving five or more A* - C grades.

But there were sparkling performances for the district's best of the best, with grant-maintained Bacup and Rawtenstall Grammar School leading the way with 99 per cent of students taking five or more top grades - a two per cent improvement on last year. The school was also among the best 200 in the UK.

Burnley's St Hilda's RC High underlined its place as the county's top all-girls school with a 74 per cent top score rating - three per cent up on last year.

And there was a return to winning ways for Brierfield's once-beleaguered Mansfield High which bounced back to academic success with its best-ever result in national tables.

Pendle's biggest high school - surrounded by controversy and subject to Government special measures for two years - scored a 46 per cent success rate for five or more top grades - up 13 per cent and the first time the Brierfield school has soared through the 40 per cent mark.

The result was the icing on the cake for staff, pupils and governors who have turned the school around and been told they may be handed back full control six months early. The girls at St Hilda's RC High were again the creme de la creme of academic achievement - topping GCSE success tables for Burnley and Pendle for the fourth successive year and well ahead of its nearest local rival, Habergham.

Throughout the area, only Bacup and Rawtenstall, St Hilda's, Habergham, Burnley's St Theodore's, Haslingden High and Colne's SS Fisher-More beat the national average for top grades.

There was a massive improvement for Burnley's St Theodore's - up 16 points to 55 per cent.

Headmaster of Habergham, Mr David Clayton described the school's GCSE results as "the best ever."

"In 1999 GCSE candidates had an average ability well below the national average when they were 11 year olds. In most schools in England they would have reached a five or more C -plus grades percentage of between 37 and 42. The national average in 1999 was 47.9 per cent. The Habergham pupils reached 60 per cent which is magnificent.

"Among all 15 comprehensive school sixth forms in Lancashire including those in Blackburn and Blackpool, Habergham came first for A-level points score per candidate and for A level points score per subject entry. That's reassuring!"

Bottom of the list was Burnley's Barden High which slumped from last year's 37 per cent with five or more A-Cs to just 18 per cent - three points below second bottom, Fearns High, Stacksteads.

However, Barden, unlike some other schools which had up to 11 per cent of students with no GCSEs, cut its no-passes rate from eight per cent to nil - ensuring that every pupil came out with GCSE achievement to his or her name.

Many schools condemn the league tables because they say they fail to truly reflect the hard work that goes on in schools.

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