BRIGHTON and Hove has seen GCSE results on the rise again despite grades dropping across the rest of the country.

The proportion of students achieving 5 or more GCSEs with A*-C grades including English and Maths has risen by one percentage point to 62 per cent compared to 2015.

Nationally GCSE results have fallen to their lowest since 2008 with the overall proportion of entries achieving A* to C dropping from 69 per cent to 66.9 per cent.

The drop has been blamed on more pupils in England being required to resit English and maths.

But there is reason to cheer in Brighton and Hove, where the percentage of pupils achieving A*-C in English is 73% against 67% nationally in 2015.

In maths the percentage of pupils achieving A*-C in maths is also above the national average at 70% against 67% nationally in 2015.

The chair of the council’s children and young people committee, Councillor Tom Bewick said: “Last year Brighton & Hove had the most improved results of any local authority in the country.

“This year’s results represent yet another step forward for our city and I take my hat off to all the hard work our students and staff have put in.

“My congratulations also to the headteachers across the city whose hard work and collaborative approach is a huge and effective part of the drive to deliver the best for all our pupils.

“I’m thrilled about the massive 22 percentage points improvement in results at the Brighton Aldridge Community Academy.

“Cardinal Newman has done fantastically well to achieve its best ever results. I’m really pleased to see Longhill thriving and Patcham making progress in all areas.

“School improvement is above all about attention to detail, both in terms of data collection and analysis and individual students getting the targeted support they need.

“The council’s education team works in close partnership with all our schools, offering them both support and challenge. The team has played a key role in this year’s improvements, and we will continue to work with our schools to drive forward further improvements in future.

"I look forward to a more detailed analysis being presented to the children, young people and skills committee in due course. This will include an examination of how well we are doing in terms of closing the disadvantage gap in the city."