See tables of schools in Swindon

IMPROVING education at Swindon's secondary schools has once again helped the town climb a national results league table.

The tables compare performances of schools up and down the country based on their pupils' performances in Key Stage 3 English, maths and science SATs.

Last year's tables saw Swindon ranked 99 of 150 councils across England.

But this year strong performances by the town's schools have catapulted Swindon to 76th position.

Coun Garry Perkins, cabinet member for children services, said: "It is a pleasure to see how well Swindon pupils are doing.

"Not only do these results reflect pupils' hard work to achieve and maintain a good understanding of the core subjects, they also provide a good foundation on which to build, hopefully resulting in an improved picture across the board at GCSE level in the next few years."

This year's results also saw a number of Swindon schools change places in the town's rankings.

Coming out top in this year's Swindon table is Ridgeway School.

Ninety-one per cent of Ridgeway School's students reached the required standard level in English in the tests.

And 86 per cent of youngsters hit the required level in maths and 85 per cent made the grade in science.

And a special assessment of how effective the schools' teaching between the Key Stage Two and Key Stage Three tests showed the school was performing well.

Headteacher Steven Colledge said he was delighted at the progress the school had made.

"I am hoping for continued improvement in each year group," he said.

"This is the highest result we have had.

"And to know that our pupils have had achievements beyond what was predicted is wonderful."

Last year's Swindon table-topper was St Joseph's Catholic College.

This year it stands in second place.

Highworth Warneford is also among the town's high flyers after maintaining its third place in the rankings.

In maths 87 per cent of its pupils hit the standard, compared to last year's 83 per cent.

Highworth head John Saunders said he was delighted his pupils' hard work had paid off.

"The aim of this school is to make sure that students can progress as much as they can," he said.

"Each year group is different and the good result is down to the hard work put in by staff and students, along with the support of the parents."

The tables for this year also revealed that Commonweal School has moved up to fourth position.

And Kingsdown School has taken the fifth place.

In Swindon overall, 75 per cent of pupils achieved the expected level 5 or above mark in English - a year-on-year improvement of six per cent.

That mark means Swindon is one per cent ahead of the national average mark in English.

Improvements were also recorded in the town's average maths and science scores.