The proportion of Oxfordshire students who achieved five A* to C grades in their GCSEs this year was the highest ever.

Government figures released last night show that 60.3 per cent of students getting their results in August scored at least five A* to C grades including English and Maths.

That is up 2.4 per cent on last year’s figure and marks the biggest improvement since 2010.

However the figures still only put Oxfordshire in line with the national average of 60.4 per cent.

The proportion of GCSE students making “expected levels of progress” in English in Oxfordshire has also increased by 5.1 per cent from 65.2 per cent last year to 70.3 per cent.

In maths that figure rose by 0.1 per cent from 70.8 per cent in 2012 to 70.9 per cent this year.

On both these progress measures, Oxfordshire’s 2013 results are slightly ahead of the national average.