A crusade to improve national education standards has a York school in its front line for the second year in a row.

Fulford School's headteacher Keith Hayton was meeting education chiefs in London today after the school came top of the class in city league tables.

But it was not all good news. North Yorkshire schools were judged seventh best in England by the Government figures, a drop for the county from fifth last year.

The City of York Council's fall was even greater. Last year, the city was placed 12th, this year it was 36th.

Mike Peters, director of education at City of York Council, said: "The numbers of pupils getting grades A to C in GCSEs has dropped this year, but our A to G results have gone up.

"There has been a concentration on ensuring that all pupils receive something and that has happened, but there has been a drop in A to Cs and there is no particular reason for that."

He said the authority was working to improve, with the aim of having 70 per cent of school pupils achieving grades A to C by the year 2002.

Individual schools were celebrating success.

Archbishop Holgate School was said to be the most improved school in the area, and one of the most improved in the country.

Headteacher John Harris said: "This reflects our pupils' commitment, their determination to succeed, their hard work, the support of parents and a great deal of encouragement from dedicated staff."

Huntington School celebrated 67 per cent of their pupils achieving grades A to C, while the Manor School had 64 per cent.

Fulford School was one of only 25 British schools to receive the special invitation from Education Secretary David Blunkett in recognition of its achievements and to help to draw up plans to help others to share its success.

It is the second year that the Government has said Fulford's impressive report card is one to be followed.

The performance league tables released by the Government today showed 70 per cent of Fulford School pupils sitting GCSEs earned five at grades C or higher, putting it at the top of the city's comprehensives. The national average is 46.3 per cent. Last year it achieved 65 per cent.

The performance is even more impressive considering that in 1994 figures showed only 41 per cent of Fulford School pupils at the same academic level.

Mr Hayton said: "This is a tribute to the skills of the staff and the hard work of the pupils and it is nice to have that recognised. It makes everybody feel good and that is excellent.

"I have reservations about league tables, but if we have them then it is nice to be at the top of them."

He said he was reserved because a school's success is based around many factors, including exam results, the general educational experience and the background of youngsters that are being taught. The leagues were based mainly around exams only.

In the City of York Council's area, 48.9 per cent of schools received five GCSEs at grade A to C.

County Council figures showed 56.3 per cent, with East Riding Council recording 47 per cent.

FACT FILE

This year's English secondary school performance tables, published for the seventh successive year, show:

Overall, 46.3% of pupils achieved five A* to C grades - equivalent to the old O-level - up from 45.1% last year.

Fewer pupils failed to get even one GCSE pass - 6.6% as opposed to 7.7% last year.

A-level achievement is measured by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) scoring system, which gives 10 points for an A grade.

The average UCAS points score for candidates sitting two or more A-levels was 17.8, up from 17.3 last year.

GCSE

At GCSE, the Isles of Scilly chalked up the best score for the third year running, with 66.7% of pupils getting five good grades, up from last year's 61.1%.

Buckinghamshire achieved the second best results, followed by Kingston upon Thames, Sutton and Windsor and Maidenhead.

Hull achieved the worst results, with just 22.8% of pupils achieving five good grades - a slight improvement on last year's 21.4%.

Knowsley on Merseyside achieved the second worst results, followed in ascending order by the London borough of Islington, the City of Nottingham and the London borough of Hackney.

A-levels

At A-level - measured this year by the average points score per exam entry for A and AS-levels and Advanced GNVQs - the top performing local education authorities were Buckinghamshire, Bournemouth and the London borough of Sutton, where the average was 5.9 points per entry.

The best performing school was the independent Gyosei International School UK, Milton Keynes, which scored an average 9.8 points.

Second on 9.1 was the independent St Paul's School, London, and third was a state comprehensive, Cordeaux High School, Louth, Lincs on 9.0.

Truancy

Truancy levels worsened marginally last year, with secondary schools recording an average 1.1% of half-days missed through unauthorised absence, up from 1% last year.

The worst truancy record was shared by Hull and the City of Nottingham, both with 3.7% of half-days missed.

Although bottom for the second year running, Hull has improved its truancy record slightly. Last year, 4.1% of half-days were missed.

To look at the tables for yourself click into the Dfee website.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.