Schools are celebrating better GCSE results than last year -- but are set to fall short of tough targets set for the county.

Oxfordshire County Council was hoping 56 per cent of pupils would achieve the benchmark five GCSEs at grade C or better this year, but a number of schools have performed less well.

Last year, only 51.3 per cent of children in Oxfordshire state schools attained the benchmark, leaving the county lagging behind similar authorities in the league table.

Nationally, there is an increase in the number of A* and A grades, up from 16.7 per cent last year to 17.4 per cent.

There is no change in the overall pass rate, with 97.6 per cent achieving grades A* to G, and girls are still outperforming boys.

The overall figures for Oxfordshire are still being processed and will be released by the Government in the autumn.

Tony Crabbe, the county's executive member for schools, said: "They are very ambitious targets -- we didn't meet them last year and I would be surprised if we did this year, but I'm hopeful we will make some significant progress towards meeting them."

Some pupils at Wheatley Park School who took subjects at Oxford and Cherwell College's Thame campus, were unable to collect their long-awaited results yesterday because of postal delays.

Although the complete figures are not yet available, headteacher Nick Young said his pupils had bucked the national trend with boys matching or exceeding girls' results.

He said: "It was very difficult and disappointing for the students who were expecting to receive their results.

"Boys have done particularly well this year and have achieved their best ever results for the school. This is because we have tailored the curriculum a bit more to suit their interests."