PUPILS, parents and teachers will no doubt this morning study the breakdown of GCSE results for Oxfordshire schools.

They now have the opportunity to examine the results table and see how all schools have performed.

Some schools’ results will put them closer to the bottom of the league table rather than the top and there will be many different factors dictating this.

But when you look at the performance of the county’s schools as a whole they are heading in the right direction.

These are the best set of GCSE results for Oxfordshire in recent years and pupils are beating the national average when it comes to the all-important indicator of five A*-C grades including English and maths.

Most academies have performed well, and additional funding they obtained from central government when they opted out of local authority control may have contributed to that success.

Not all schools’ results have improved, and the poor performers will now be striving for an improvement but it has to be good news overall when county GCSE results are above the national average.