Official league tables school by school I Top 50 Independent schools by A Level results I Top 50 State schools by A Level results

Top 50 schools by GCSE results I Top 50 grammar schools by GCSE results I Top 50 State schools by GCSE results I Top 50 Independent Schools by GCSE I Top 50 schools with contextual value added by GCSE

Grammar school pupils outperformed their privately educated counterparts at A level by a record margin last summer, piling more pressure on the beleaguered fee-paying sector.

As the recession forces many middle-class families to question whether they can afford private education, new figures reveal that the average grammar school pupil attained 73 more A-level points than those educated privately. The points system, in which an A grade is worth 270 points, is used by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service to assess applications to higher education.

Competition for places is fierce

Parents can draw comfort that excellence in education is not the preserve of the independent sector

• School League tables: State grammar schools beat private sector for A levels

BACKGROUND

• State grammar schools named best for A levels

• Fewer schools underperform in GCSE and A level

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• Offical school league tables 2008

• Parent power: find the best schools in your area

• The Times school league tables

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• What league tables don't tell you

The latest statistics, based on last year’s results, show that a quarter of all grammar school pupils achieved at least three A grades at A level, the highest level to date. The average A-level score achieved by grammar pupils was 966, compared with 893 in the independent sector.

Independent schools still have a higher percentage of straight-A pupils, but the gap has narrowed.

It was another record crop of exam results, with the largest annual increase in GCSE top grades in almost 20 years. Nearly two thirds of pupils (65.3 per cent) were awarded five good GCSEs (A* to C), up from 63.3 per cent and the biggest jump since 1990.

Comprehensives scored an average of 727.8 A-level points per pupil, while the average for the state sector as a whole was 757.4. The proportion of pupils passing the Government’s tough new threshold of at least five C grades including English and maths rose 1.3 percentage points to 47.6 per cent. It still means that fewer than half of all pupils achieved the standard. About 100,000 pupils failed to gain at least one Grade C. Only half of pupils attained two science GCSEs and only a third passed a modern language.

Girls strengthened their dominance. Almost 70 per cent gained at least five good GCSEs, compared with 60.9 per cent of boys.

About one in eight A-level candidates achieved at least three A grades. More girls got A grades in A-level maths, further maths, physics, chemistry and economics than boys. Boys did better at A level in modern languages, usually a female strength.

Nearly a third of the schools threatened by the Government with closure last summer face a reprieve after improving. Ed Balls, the Schools Secretary, categorised 638 schools as “National Challenge” institutions last year because fewer than 30 per cent of pupils achieved five good GCSEs. That has dropped by a third to 440.

John Dunford, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said: “The focus on raising achievement in these schools, particularly in maths and English, is producing results and it is regrettable that the task was made more difficult by the . . . torrent of consultants, plans and meetings that followed.”

State school successes included Perry Beeches, in Birmingham, named last year as one of the worst performing schools but now one of the most improved. It went from having 21 per cent of pupils achieve five good GCSEs to 51 per cent.

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