IT’S been a recordbreaking year at Upper Shirley High School, with 68 per cent of the Year 11 pupils getting at least five high passes.

The proportion leaving with good grades has jumped eight percentage points from last year, and the number getting the A* to Cs including maths and English has also gone up – from 43 per cent in 2009 to 47.5 per cent this time.

Every single pupil in the all-boy year group at the now mixed-sex school, formerly called Bellemoor, achieved at least one GCSE pass.

The results build on the success in recent years that saw head teacher Cassie Ellins invited to Downing Street earlier this year to meet then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown at an event celebrating progress being made in schools.

Deputy head teacher Martin Brown said: “We’re all over the moon – the overall five A* to C rate is the highest we’ve ever had.

I would presume we’re going to be up there again as one of the highest achieving boys’ schools in the country, and the value added score will be in the top five per cent in England.”