THE head teacher of York’s Fulford School has hailed his sixth formers’ A level results, amid reports that the school was the country’s seventh best performing comprehensive.

Steve Smith said people should be as proud of pupils’ achievements as those of athletes in the Olympics, and also dismissed critics who claimed results nationally had been improving because exams were getting easier.

He said an analysis in The Independent newspaper had named Fulford as the seventh best performing comprehensive in the country, based on exam points per candidate. It was also the best performing state non-selective school in the region based on the percentage gaining A*/AB, he said.

He said: “Using these figures, the Daily Telegraph placed Fulford School 122nd nationally in their table, which includes selective and Independent schools. According to that table, Fulford was the fourth best non-selective state school in the whole of the North of England.”

He said all of Fulford’s six Oxbridge candidates, Georgia Faletas, Emma French, Ben Kybet, Johnny Minshull-Beech, Helen Thompson and Tom Byrne, were successful.

He said the nation had watched enthralled at the fantastic achievement of the 2012 Olympians, marvelling at how many had overcome numerous barriers, for example arriving in this country as a refugee fleeing from war-torn Somalia.

“Now in the same vein, we should be equally proud of the achievements of the nation’s youngsters, and in particular, those from Fulford School, as they collect their “A” level results.

“All of them have produced fantastic results after two years of hard work to follow on from their work in the previous two years for their GCSEs in order to get to this point.”

He criticised observers who had disparaged student’s exam success in recent years, suggesting it only been achieved because standards were falling and exams were easier.

He said athletes had achieved improved times at the Olympics partly through a more scientific approach to diet, fitness, and training plus advances in technology. “Improvements to exam results is exactly the same: students are often working harder, are better prepared, are extremely well taught, and exam boards provide more information and guidance than was the case in the past,” he said.