BURNLEY has bucked the national trend with its super schools seeing a marked improvement on GCSE results.

In the town, which has had a £250million Building Schools for the Future (BSF) investment, students’ grades continued to rise despite GSCE grades falling nationally for the first time in almost 20 years.

Headteachers said it was a ‘monumental achievement’ and they were delighted to have ‘smashed’ their previous records.

Phil Nayor, assistant headteacher of Blessed Trinity, said: “We are incredibly proud of all the students. They have worked incredibly hard, remained focused and taken on board all the advice their teachers gave them which helped in these fantastic results.”

He said Blessed Trinity had surpassed its previous year’s GCSE results, providing the school with real optimism for the future.

Eighty three per cent of students achieved five A* to C grades, and 51 per cent achieved five A* to C grades including English and maths, up from 47 per cent.

A staggering 98 per cent of students achieved five A* to G grades.

In other parts of East Lancashire and nationally there was anger from heads over unexpectedly low grades in English.

Bob Wakefield, head of Shuttleworth College , said examination performance had improved significantly again this year and Shuttleworth was now comfortably above Government targets.

Forty seven per cent of students achieved five higher GCSE grades including English and maths, up from 40 per cent in 2011. And 85 per cent of students achieved the equivalent of five higher GCSE grades, up from just 52 per cent last year.

And Unity College in Burnley, has seen an impressive 15 per cent further improvement in its results with 54 per cent of the year group achieving five A* to C grades including English and mathematics and 78 per cent achieving five A* to C grades.

Headteacher Sally Cryer said: “It is a monumental achievement, smashing our record for five A* to C grades including English and mathematics in the college.“ Sir John Thursby Community College said its Year 11 students had beaten their target and achieved 71 per cent five A* to C this year at GCSE.

The school has also maintained 38 per cent five A* to C including English and maths even though this year’s students had lower attainment at Primary School than last year’s cohort.

Hameldon Community College has also shown year-on-year improvements, improving on last year’s 41 per cent of student’s achieving five or more A* to C GCSEs.

Gill Broom, headteacher, said: “These results are a testament to the hard work and close working relationships of all our students, parents, staff and governors.”

Burnley Council leader, Julie Cooper, said: “I’d like to congratulate all our students for their hard work.”