HARD-WORKING pupils have again helped the area's schools achieve top results in the national school performance tables.

Several schools gained scores above the country's average for last year's Key Stage Three national curriculum tests, which are taken by 14-year-olds.

Huntington School pupils were celebrating today after topping the results for York schools for the second year running.

The value-added section of the results shows the progress youngsters have made in maths, English and science since leaving primary school.

Huntington achieved a score of 102, which puts it well into the top 25 per cent of schools nationally, and above the York average of 100.3.

Archbishop Holgate's School was also in the top bracket, receiving a score of 101.2 - the second highest in the city.

The national average score is 98.8 to 100.5 for schools with 50 or more pupils, and 99 to 100.3 for schools with 100 or more pupils.

Chris Bridge, headteacher at Huntington, said: "This is really a tribute to all the adults who work on this site. We feel that Huntington School creates within it a special atmosphere which really encourages pupils to do well.

"I'm very conscious how tired staff are at the moment, trying to do this all once more with this year's pupils."

He said the value added tables were a good measure of schools' performance as they look at how much every child had improved between Year 6 and Year 9.

"We always set ourselves high targets and we want to raise children by two levels from Year 6 to Year 9.

"At the moment, they have gone up by 1.7 levels. And when we hit our target, we will be really happy."

John Harris, headmaster at Archbishop Holgate's, said: "We are delighted by the results which are due to a great deal of hard work by pupils and staff, with much support from parents.

"We are delighted by the commitment and focus that pupils have shown, which sets a high benchmark for the future."

Updated: 10:31 Thursday, March 30, 2006