SUFFOLK students failed to make the national grade in their GCSE results last year, new figures have revealed.

SUFFOLK students failed to make the national grade in their GCSE results last year, new figures have revealed.

The Department of Education and Skills released figures this morning that showed just 46.6% of the county's 16-year-olds achieved at least five A* to C grades in 2008 - a fall from 47.3% in 2007 and below the national average of 47.6%.

But performance at A-level improved with the average points score per pupil rising from 724.1 to 738.6, just below the national average.

In Essex, performance at GCSE was 49% - up from 47.2% - and A-level average points rose from 756.9 to 766.9.

Among the top 200 performing schools in the country for GCSEs were King Edward VI Upper School in Chelmsford (which was seventh overall), Colchester County High School for Girls, Colchester Grammar School, Chelmsford County High for Girls, Ipswich High School for Girls and Ipswich School.

Farlingaye High School, Woodbridge, was in the top 200 schools at A-level, as were Colchester Grammar, King Edward VI, Chelmsford, Colchester County High for Girls, Chelmsford County High for Girls and St John Payne School, Chelmsford.

St Benedict's School, Bury St Edmunds, Kesgrave High School, and St Albans High School, Ipswich, were also among the top performing state schools in the country at A-level.

For GCSEs, Bishops Park College, Clacton and Rickstones school in Witham were among the bottom 200 in the country but Chelmer Valley School, Chelmsford, and the Gilberd School, Colchester, were among the most improved.

Bishops Park College and Alderman Blaxill School, Colchester, were highlighted as problem schools for truancy.

- For the full story and school-by-school performance tables, see tomorrow's East Anglian Daily Times.