SCHOOLS across York were celebrating today after new government league tables revealed the city to be among the country's best.

City of York Council has hailed the latest performance tables, which showed that overall 56.4 per cent of secondary school pupils left with five or more A to C grade GCSEs.

This figure compared with 51.5 per cent nationally and was the fifth consecutive year in which York students have achieved better results.

Among the city's success stories was Archbishop Holgate School, which recorded a dramatic 13 per cent increase in grades.

Fifty-seven per cent of pupils gained five A to C grades compared with 44 per cent the previous year.

Head teacher John Harris said: "We are delighted by the strong improvement - the result of a great deal of hard work by pupils and staff and the strong support of parents."

Other top-performing schools included Oaklands, which recorded an 11 per cent increase in results, and Canon Lee School, which recorded a 13 per cent increase.

Coun Janet Looker, the council's executive member for education, said: "This is an excellent set of results. We have always set ourselves very challenging targets and will continue to do so in the coming years."

But while there was joy across York, one city head teacher branded the league table results as "an outrageous betrayal of the work of our students".

Chiefs at Bootham School were furious after red tape saw it placed at the bottom of the Government's annual league ladder.

The tables should have shown the private school as York's best with a 100 per cent pass rate at five GCSE's or more. But because the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) refuses to recognise exam candidates whose birthdays fall outside given dates, the school's position in today's tables has been slashed - even placing Bootham at the bottom of York schools in a ladder listing the number of pupils gaining A-G passes.

The DfES said the body must place cut-off points for candidates' ages when gathering data for league tables.

Bootham School head teacher Ian Small said: "This is a serious and misleading falsehood."

Updated: 12:17 Thursday, January 23, 2003