A NUMBER of schools have cause for celebration today following the publication of this year's league tables.

The Commonweal School in Old Town and Warneford School in Highworth have jointly recorded Swindon's best GCSE results.

At both schools 56 per cent of students reached the benchmark of five A* to C grades - including English and maths - although in the Swindon LEA ranking Commonweal was placed top with a higher GCSE points score.

Students at Bradon Forest School in Purton, which is in Wiltshire County Council's area, also achieved the same figure of 56 per cent.

Keith Defter, Commonweal head, said: "I am of course delighted with the results and it shows how much hard work the staff and students put into the exams.

"In fact our Year 11 group last year was a cracking group and I'm expecting the same good results from our current students. As in all of Swindon's schools, we do support our students in the run up to GCSEs with extra revision workshops and even classes which include their parents, which I think helps."

Warneford headteacher, John Saunders, believes hard work and determination led his students to success.

"I'm extremely pleased because our students and staff worked very hard in the run up to the exams in class and during revision sessions."

He added: "This year the tables have changed but I think it's a good thing to have English and maths included because they are both extremely important subjects."

Although the county council controls Bradon Forest, Swindon students make up a large number of the school's intake.

Headteacher Len Spiers said: "We were delighted with our continuing high performance at GCSE this year which is due to first class teamwork, and an emphasis on ensuring that all students, irrespective of ability, set their sights high in all aspects of school life - academic, cultural, social and sporting.

"Bradon Forest is fortunate to have an excellent team of professional teachers and support staff who are dedicated to providing high quality teaching and pastoral care for our students."

For the first time this year the contextual value added measure takes into account students' gender, age and social and ethnic backgrounds among other features influencing results.

It then shows how far a secondary school has helped pupils make progress since they left primary school by comparing their GCSE grades to test results for pupils aged 11.

The Ridgeway School in Wroughton has come out on top in this category with a score of 1007.3 per pupil, closely followed by Churchfields School with 1006.5. Scores above 1000 are considered above average.

Ridgeway head, Steven Colledge, said: "As tables begin to focus upon pupil progress we are delighted that The Ridgeway is able to demonstrate considerable success in this analysis also. "It is a credit to staff, pupils and parents that such a positive value-added was achieved.

"This measure shows that all our pupils are making progress and as a school we are concerned to continue to be innovative and forward thinking so that this improves even further."

Despite the setback this week at Farmor's School in Fairford, it is celebrating above average results with 67 per cent of students achieving five grades A*-C, including English and maths - the highest score in the Swindon area.

This put them in top 200 most improved schools in the country. Farmor's also achieved the highest value added figure.

It is welcome news following the fire on Saturday night which destroyed the maths block.

Two teenagers were arrested and bailed.