Across the county The Warriner School, in Bloxham, was in second place overall, Langtree School, Woodcote was third highest achieving, The Marlborough School, Woodstock, was fourth, and Bartholomew School, Eynsham, was fifth.

Larkmead School, Abingdon, had the equal second-highest value-added score in Oxfordshire, on a par with Matthew Arnold School.

Headteacher Chris Harris said: "We are very proud that we have done so well at Key Stage Three and we are proud that we are right at the top of the county table for added value.

"Remembering that many of our students at Larkmead started at below the national average, to make this level of progress shows that the school is working effectively.

"Nevertheless, we will really only be satisfied when we transfer that rate of progress to our Key Stage Four figures, which are good but we would like them to be as excellent as these are."

Chris Bryan, headteacher at St Birinus School, in Didcot, said: "Eighty-one per cent achieved at least Level Five in science and 60 per cent achieved at least Level Six in mathematics.

"We were very pleased indeed with these results as they are a good prediction of potential GCSE results at the end of Year 11."

Nicholas Young, principal at King Alfred's, in Wantage, which ranked 12th in the county, said he was pleased with the results.

But he said: "Although we increasingly feel that the value of these tests is questionable they nevertheless reflect credit on the year group and on the teachers who worked hard on their behalf.

"These students are now well into their GCSE courses, and we anticipate some excellent results in the summer of 2009."