WINDSOR High School has soared up the exam league table, leaping into third place in Dudley borough with the best GCSE results in Halesowen.

The academy school saw a record 74 per cent of pupils gain five or more GCSE A*-Cs including maths and English in 2013, an increase of 13 per cent over the previous year.

Many schools’ results dipped in the Government’s measure of success, including Earls High, down from 75 per cent to 70 per cent.

Windsor enjoyed the third highest increase on its 2012 results in the borough and was one of the schools to have the most passes for the English Baccalaureate, with 30 per cent.

Leasowes results dipped by four per cent to 53 per cent, breaking a three year cycle continued improvement in GCSE results.

Ninety per cent of Windsor pupils passed English at C grade or higher, compared to 74 per cent at Leasowes and 69 per cent at Earls.

But Earls’ pupils fared better in maths, with 76 per cent gaining the top grades, closely followed by Windsor on 74 per cent and Leasowes with 63 per cent – still three per cent above the borough average.

Top of the league table for Dudley borough is Ellowes Hall Sports College, Lower Gornal, with an 80 per cent pass rate – down by five per cent on 2012, closely followed by Summerhill School at Kingswinford on 79 per cent.

Windsor overtook the prestigious Old Swinford Hospital School by two per cent, after its results dipped by eight per cent on 2012.

Proud Windsor headteacher Keith Sorrell described the results - which put the school in the top 100 most improved schools nationally - as "excellent.".

He added: "When academic performance is compared by the Department of Education with similar schools in England, which takes into account students’ entry levels in year seven, we were ranked second. We are proud of our students’ exceptional progress."

Overall, Dudley borough schools achieved their best ever results with a pass rate of 59.7 per cent – up from 56.1 per cent – a fraction behind the national average.

Councillor Tim Crumpton, cabinet member for children, libraries and lifelong learning, said: “These are impressive results, which clearly demonstrate how hard our young people and schools are working.

“It is a tribute to the professionalism of our teachers and we are working hard with them to get all of our schools to the same standard. “ In Oldbury, Perryfields High School, maintained its fourth place in Sandwell’s league table, with a 59 per cent pass rate, closely followed by the Oldbury Academy on 58 per cent, and St Michael’s CE High School, Rowley Regis, on 55 per cent.

Cradley Heath’s former Heathfield High School, now the Ormiston Forge Academy, was saved from bottom place by one per cent, with a pass rate of just 44 per cent compared to Heathfield’s 2012 figure of 57 per cent Sandwell’s secondary schools achieved their best ever GCSE results with 54.1 per cent gaining five GCSEs at A*-C grade, including English and maths, up from 53.8 per cent on 2012.

Councillor Simon Hackett, cabinet member for children's services said: "We acknowledge that the number of pupils gaining five A* - C GCSEs is not yet high enough.

"On the positive, over the last five years, Sandwell's results have improved by 18 percentage points, compared to a national improvement of only nine percentage points.”