AN INCREASE in the number of pupils acheiving good GCSE results has taken a Leyton school out of the “ludicrous” failing school category.

George Mitchell School in Farmer Road, Leyton, has seen a nine per cent increase in the number of pupils obtaining five or more A* to C grades at GCSE, including maths and English, over the last two years.

Headteacher Helen Jeffrey praised the hard work of staff and students, but criticised the Government’s methods of assessing school performance.

She said: “(The results) takes us out of the ludicrous category of ‘failing schools’ as defined by the Government in June 2008 for all schools not achieving 30 per cent whatever the the academic starting point of the students.

“The figure reinforces what Ofsted said in June - that we are a good school with good achievement and good teaching and learning.

“They recognised that the academic starting points of students at George Mitchell are much lower than any other school in the local authority.

The school has deliberately reduced the number of subjects taken by some students so they can concentrate on Maths and English and increase their chances of getting into college.

But this has affected the score given for pupil’s year-on-year improvement.

The headteacher continued: “There is a serious flaw in the Government’s data systems whereby the more successful the school is in raising the number of pupils achieving 5 A* to C, the more it looks as if it is not doing so well in other ways.