THERE were no surprises for schools in Alcester with the publication of the official school league tables last week.

Alcester Grammar, a restricted entry school, appeared in the top five schools in the county for GCSE results with 99 per cent of all 93 key stage four pupils achieving grade A* to C in five or more GCSEs including English and maths.

Other schools in the town also fared well, with Alcester Academy, which has had a changeover of head teacher from Jane Brooks to Paul Hyde in the past year, seeing 61 per cent of its 164 GCSE pupils achieve A* to C grades in five or more exams including English and maths, only one per cent up on last year, but an overall increase year on year since 2010 when only 55 per cent achieved the same results.

Results at St Benedict’s dipped considerably from an average between 2010 and 2012 of 79 per cent of pupils achieving five GCSEs grades A* to C including English and maths, to 64 per cent of its 106 pupils achieving the same grades this year, but the school was ranked seventh in the county in terms of its Value Added score for disadvantaged pupils, which shows how well pupils have improved from their initial starting point at the school, taking into account social and economic factors in the school’s catchment area.

Headteacher Tim Sara said: “The results were okay. It’s English that dipped really, although what happened was that usually everyone that gets maths gets English, so the English results were good and the maths results were good, but both together weren’t good.”