AN ABINGDON secondary school has been listed among the top 100 most improved in the country.

Larkmead School, which has pupils from some of the most deprived areas of Oxfordshire, was honoured in this week’s publication of the 2010 GCSE results.

It has seen the proportion of pupils getting five A* to C grades including English and maths go from 34 per cent in 2007 to 56 per cent last year.

Headteacher Chris Harris said setting pupils clear goals was vital to success.

He said: “When I arrived here there were no targets for pupils at all.

“We started off setting performance targets for them that 50 per cent of schools achieve.

“Then we moved up to targets met by a quarter of schools, and now we have those set for the top 10 per cent of schools in the country.

“Whenever we raise the targets, the students keep on meeting them.”

The increase put the school 90th in a list of the most improved schools in England since 2007.

Mr Harris now expects 70 per cent of pupils to meet the key measures within four years.

He said: “Even now, we’re only 40 per cent of the way.

“This has never been about drilling kids through exams but making them independent learners. This is only a fraction of the improvements that will happen here.”

Tackling attendance and the school’s deficit were key issues, said Mr Harris, who has been head for five years.

Last year, Larkmead missed out on a multi-million pound rebuild when the coalition Government scrapped the Building Schools for the Future programme.

A new uniform, logo and badge will be unveiled in 18 months and school leaders are looking for private investors for the rebuild.

Michael Waine, responsible for school improvement at Oxfordshire County Council, said: “The council congratulates Larkmead on its significant progress and its status as a top national performer.

“I’m sure the school wishes to see this rate of improvement sustained.

“Our shared aim with headteachers is for Oxfordshire’s GCSE results to continue to show improvement in comparison to the national picture year on year.”

Also in Abingdon, John Mason School was the most improved school in Oxfordshire compared to the previous year’s results.

The proportion of students getting five good GCSEs including English and maths went from 48 per cent in 2009 to 66 per cent in 2010.

County results improved by 4.4 per cent to 57.3 per cent.