GCSEs are the culmination of 12 years of education and determine where schools will be ranked in national league tables.

Some parents even decide which school they will send their child to depending on its GCSE results.

The key measure is the number of pupils who achieve five or more
A* to C grades. In Northamptonshire our schools have made great strides, with 12.9 per cent more pupils gaining those five or more top level passes in 2007 compared with 11 years ago but compared with the rest of the country we have fallen behind the national average. In England the average improvement is 16.9 per cent.

As a county we could do better, with 55.1 per cent of pupils gaining five or more A* to C grades in their GCSEs compared with 62 per cent nationally. So where are we going wrong?

Harry Darby, head of services for schools at the county council, said: "Between 1997 and 2007 everyone has improved but some have improved further than others.

"In Corby improvements have been tremendous and we have learned from that, while Wellingborough has not improved quite so much."

He puts this down to Corby schools working together in an Excellence Cluster.

As a result an Education Improvement Partnership has now been established in Wellingborough to try to replicate its success.

Another factor is that as Northamptonshire is an area of significant growth many families are moving into and out of the county and that can mean children changing schools in the middle of a key stage.

Mr Darby said: "As children get older, so the complex things impacting upon them become more significant.

"Our new School Improvement Strategy has plans to do more Easter revision classes and to stretch pupils more, but we also want to look at things like how we can support children mentally and emotionally.

That will be a bit of a slow burner."

So how does the county council, as the local education authority, plan to improve our GCSE results in line with other areas?

County council cabinet member for children and young people Joan Kirkbride said they need to make the move from primary to secondary school easier for pupils.

But she said: "Not every child at 14 wants to go down the academic route and we don't want 14-year-olds being at school and thinking 'why am I here, there is nothing here for me'.

"We are training them to look at work-based learning such as the new diplomas.

"We have got to work with parents to raise aspirations because our children deserve the best."

In November the Evening Telegraph reported Northamptonshire has the highest number of schools that were failing or in special measures in the country and Cllr Kirkbride blamed poor teachers.

So does she still believe that is the case?

She said: "We do need to give support and training but when push comes to shove teaching may not be the right job for someone."

But Mr Darby said: "There are so few bad teachers that the improvements we are making are nothing to do with rooting out the bad teachers.

Plus, classrooms are not dependent on only one person, there are often other teachers, teaching assistants and parent support assistants all working very hard together."

Two county headteachers, Rosemary Litawski of Ferrers Specialist Arts College, Higham Ferrers, and Chris Grimshaw, from Latimer Community Arts College, Barton Seagrave, are also working on a leadership programme to develop the skills of headteachers across the county.

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