STAFF and pupils at Westlands School are celebrating after figures revealed it is one of the most improved schools in England.

The Plainmoor school improved its GCSE results from a 34 per cent success rate in 2005 to 66 per cent last year.

Bosses at the 1,400-pupil school said Westlands was the best in Torbay, after the grammar schools, and one of the 10 per cent best schools in the UK for value added.

Dr Colin Kirkman, deputy head teacher at the school, praised the hard work of his staff and pupils, saying: "We are the most improved school in Torbay and in the country.

"It's really down to a lot of hard work by all the staff."

Dr Kirkman said the school's achievement was doubly commendable because of its catchment area.

He said the school was in the third most deprived area in the South West, with 70 per cent of the children being in child poverty.

He added: "Three years ago, we changed our learning style. We've put in place a mentoring system with adults providing extra help to students.

"We also started offering financial incentives to students who pass their GCSEs and for meeting pass targets.

"We are personalising students' courses they can do and enjoy.

"In fact no school has improved as much as Westlands. We are streets ahead of other Torbay schools in terms of improvement and we are very proud of that."

Recent GCSE league tables showed that 215 15-year-old pupils at the school took GCSE exams, of which 41 per cent achieved five or more A* to C grades including English and maths.

Meanwhile, 56 per cent of the students achieved Level 2 English and maths grades and 67 per cent received two grades A* to C in science.

The average total points score per pupil was 394.5.

Dr Kirkman said: "As a maths and IT college we are delighted with our GCSE science results.

"Three years ago Ofsted found us to be satisfactory but I think this year we will be good with some outstanding points or we will be outstanding."

Tony Clark, Westlands' governor, said: "These results even put us in the top 10 per cent of all secondary schools in the country on a variety of measures.

"Maintaining and improving our standards of both teaching and care for our pupils is challenging, but one that we all are enthusiastic to meet, especially with our modern buildings and status as a Maths and Computing Specialist College."