SECONDARY schools across the town may still be performing below the national average, but exam success rates for Swindon pupils are higher than ever.

Figures released by the Department of Education yesterday show that most schools have improved on the previous year’s GCSE results by a significant percentage.

For the first time, almost 50 per cent of students gained five or more A* to C grades, including English and maths – an increase of four percentage points on the results for 2009.

And 70 per cent of students gained five or more A* to C grades in all subjects, an increase of eight percentage points from the previous year.

Councillor David Renard, Swindon Council’s cabinet member for children’s services, said: “I am delighted for the young people and their achievements and the efforts teachers and everybody at the schools have put in to achieve what they have.

“Clearly we always want to move forward and make progress and in the last 12 months we have made a particularly large improvement which is really exciting,” he said.

Swindon came below the national average with 49.9 per cent of pupils across the town achieving at least five GCSEs at grades A* to C including maths and English, whereas other pupils across the country achieved an average of 54.8 per cent.

“We would like to be above the national average, which is why there is still more work to do. Everybody in the schools and local authority is aware of that and everybody is going to make sure we can match and at some point exceed the national average,” he said.

“These results demonstrate that our secondary schools continue to deliver higher standards year on year and I thank them for their hard work.”

Coun Renard has said he hopes the town’s schools can build on their achievements in the future if more money is given to them from central government.

He said: “We are hoping that at some point the new government will address the disparity in the amount of money that the government gives per pupil based on where we live.

“I can’t quite understand why there is such a disparity between a Swindon pupil and pupils living in other parts of the country where they seem to get so much more. It is not all about money of course but clearly if you have got more resources you can do more. When talking in terms of the national average it is not surprising that those authorities that get more money per pupil get higher results. We need fairer funding for Swindon pupils,” he said.