A SCHOOL with recently acquired specialist technology status is celebrating success.

Hetton School, in Hetton-le-Hole near Dur-ham, is named as one of the most improved in the country.

In today's performance tables, the number of pupils gaining five GCSEs grades A to C have risen from 45 per cent in 1999 to 63 per cent last year.

Headteacher Richard Horn said: "I'm delighted on behalf of the pupils who did so well and for the teachers and staff."

The school achieved technology status last September.

Other schools which showed marked improvements included Lord Lawson of Beamish Community School, Chester-le-Street, which saw the percentage of its pupils achieving five A-C grades at GCSE soar from 47 per cent in 1999 to 69 per cent last year.

Others did not fare as well. Walbottle Campus Technology College, in Newcastle, was among the worst 200 schools in the country for truancy.

West Gate Community College, also Newcastle, came 61st in a list of the bottom 200 English schools at GCSE. Pennywell School, in Sunderland, was 177th.