Lorna Caldicott is pleased with pupils' results

An Oxford school which last year became the first secondary school in the county to be put into special measures has today achieved its best GCSE results in years.

Peers School head- teacher Lorna Caldicott said she was absolutely delighted with the efforts of the class of 2006, who had achieved above what had been anticipated.

Based on Sats scores and assessments throughout the year, the school had predicted that 23 per cent of pupils taking the exams would get five or more grade A*s to C, but today's results showed that 26 per cent achieved these grades.

The Littlemore school was placed on special measures last October after an Ofsted inspection found it to be failing in 24 out of 25 areas, including behaviour, teaching and attendance.

However earlier this year, following a monitoring inspection, a schools inspector praised the improvement at Peers and following today's results Mrs Caldicott said the school was on the up.

She said: "We would have been happy with 23 per cent of pupils achieving A* to C and really happy with 25 per cent, so we're absolutely delighted to achieve 26 per cent. These are the best results for several years.

"I think the turnaround has been attention to detail and keeping a close track on how all the children and teachers are doing.

"We have got a long way to go, but we're on an upward trajectory. There's a really good plan in place for next year and we're in the process of securing resources to help us put it into place."

Girls at Oxford High School, in North Oxford, are also celebrating after they achieved some of the best results in the country, with more than half of all their grades being A*s.

Out of the 90 girls taking the exams, 52.82 per cent achieved A*s and 85.89 per cent achieved A*s or As.

Headmistress Felicity Lusk said: "It's another fantastic year and we expect to be among the top-perform- ing schools in the country nationally once again.

"I don't think GCSEs are getting easier. There's no doubt in my mind that these young people work a lot harder than I did when I was younger."

Alastair Green, a pupil at Magdalen College School, became one of the highest individual achievers in England, with a haul of 12 A*s - a new school record.

The number of boys achieving 10 or more A* grades doubled from last year and 88 per cent of pupils achieved A*s or As in the three individual science subjects.

At Henry Box School, in Witney, 18 students achieved eight or more A* or A grades and head- teacher Rod Walker said the school had seen record results for girls.

Alan Lane, head of Cheney School, in Head- ington, said he expected a record number of students to enter the sixth form next month after excellent GCSE results.

He added: "We haven't done all the tallying-up yet, but we're confident that it's going to be a record year and we're expecting a very large increase in the total number of students getting five or more higher grades."

John Morgan was the top performer at Abingdon School, with 12A*s and an A for French at AS level. Headmaster Mark Turner said: "There have been some superb individual performances, with more boys than ever receiving 10 or more A*s."

8:55am Thursday 24th August 2006

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