But Mr Knight is determined to continue the battle against coasting and underperforming schools. He pledged that the Government would do even more to ensure every child masters the basics to reach his or her full potential. New measures such as Contextual Value Added and 5 A*-C including English and maths will ensure parents can see how schools are doing on the basics and how they are helping their pupils to progress in comparison to the national average progression of similar pupils.

He said personalising teaching and learning was the key to stretching the most able pupils, and supporting those falling behind would further raise the number of young people leaving school getting good passes at GCSE English and maths.

The data shows that year on year, the overall proportion of young people getting five good GCSE passes has risen another 2.2 percentage points to 58.5% - the second highest increase ever. This means a total of 350,000 additional pupils have achieved five good GCSE passes since 1997 than would have done had standards remained the same.

More maintained schools than ever before have more than 70% of pupils getting five A*-C passes or more - trebling from 248 in 1997 to 768 this year. Fewer schools than ever have 25% of pupils or less getting five good GCSE passes - down from 616 in 1997 to 47 now.

Mr Knight has also written to the top schools with the most improved five A*-C passes including English and maths, and schools with the highest Contextual Value Added scores.

Academies are increasing the proportion of their pupils getting five good grades including English and maths at a faster rate than the national average with gains of 6.2 percentage points. This is six times better than the national improvement rate of 1 percentage point. Many have also achieved excellent CVA scores showing that their pupils are progressing faster than the national average for similar pupils. The Academy of St Francis of Assisi has pushed their pupils to achieve an average of 13 grades higher across their top eight GCSEs than would be expected.

Published for the first time today for every secondary school in England, the CVA scores show how each school's intake has progressed between the ages of 11 and 16, compared to the national average for similar pupils. The score allows schools to be judged on the impact they have had on individual pupil progress - not simply on headline results at each key stage level.

Figures also published today show that unauthorised absence in secondary schools fell to 1.20% in the last academic year compared with 1.23% in the previous academic year. Between 22 April 2006 and 1 September 2006, 4,861 penalty notices were issued, to give parents a sharp reminder of their responsibilities, and over 3200 Parenting Contracts were agreed with parents, to support them in tackling their child's absenteeism.

Jim Knight said:

"I congratulate pupils, teachers and parents on their achievements. These results clearly show that our record investment continues to drive up standards faster than ever - the last two years have shown the two biggest year-on-year increases in GCSE results since 1997.

"I am especially pleased to see more young people than ever leaving school with good GCSE passes in English and maths. We are determined that every young person should be equipped for life with the basics - and introducing these subjects into achievement and attainment tables reflects the importance we place on it. Our transparent approach will help parents to compare and contrast schools on the most important measures.

"However, we are not complacent and recognise there is a still a long way to go until every child has the opportunity to fulfil their potential. There should be no hiding place for underperforming and coasting schools that fail to make a significant positive impact on their pupil's progress. That's why we are committed to further tailoring and personalising learning to ensure that individual pupils get the support they need.

"Our pilot programmes, announced this week, will stretch the most able pupils and build on the targeted support for pupils that have fallen behind with literacy and numeracy skills at Key Stage two and three. We are also determined to improve the performance of boys, particularly in GCSE English, and to reverse the decline in take-up for modern foreign languages.

"I also congratulate schools which top the new Contextual Value Added table. This allows schools to be recognised for the outstanding impact they have had on their individual pupil's progress - not simply on headline GCSE and A-level results which do not necessarily take account of schools with challenging intakes of pupils.

"I am delighted that unauthorised absence has fallen - and that local authorities are using our tools to tackle it, including parenting contracts to reinforce parental responsibility for school attendance and behaviour. The bottom line is, the more a child is in school, the better results they can achieve."

Also published today are A Level and equivalent tables which show further improvements in performance at post 16.

Editor's Notes
This press notice relates to 'England'

1. CVA: Factors outside a school's control, such as gender, mobility and levels of deprivation have been observed to have an impact on pupil results even after allowing for prior attainment. To take these into account requires a model of value added, which was developed and piloted last year and is used in full this year. This Contextualised Value Added (CVA) model goes a step further than the previous VA measures by taking into account a number of factors outside a school's control and allows us to reflect more realistically and therefore more fairly, the impact each school makes considering the particular circumstances of its intake.

Contact Details
Public Enquiries 0870 000 2288, info@dfes.gsi.gov.uk