A COMPRHENSIVE school once classed as almost failing by Ofsted inspectors is celebrating today after doubling its GCSE pass rate.

As thousands of students collect their GCSE results, staff at Bishop Barrington School in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, are reaping the rewards of years of hard work with an A-C pass rate of 41 per cent - more than double that of last year's 20 per cent pass rate.

Nationally, the A-C pass rate is 57.9 per cent and the A-G pass rate is 97.9 per cent.

And once again, girls were cited as outperforming the boys, with "laddish culture" being to blame.

At Bishop Barrington, Ofsted inspectors have classed the school, which is oversubscribed, as one of the most improved.

Eight years ago, Ofsted criticised the school for poor standards, attendance rates and punctuality. It was one of the first schools in the country to be visited by inspectors, who were so critical of the quality of education that it narrowly missed being classed as failing its pupils.

Today, headteacher Keith Cotgrave and his staff are celebrating a record high in its GCSE pass rate.

He said: "You expect to improve but this is absolutely fantastic news. There were a lot of tears of joy among the staff and it's great news for the kids because a lot of them are going on to higher education."

Mr Cotgrave, who joined the school seven years ago, said since the first Ofsted inspection, discipline had been tightened up and teachers were heading quality lessons.

"The staff and children always work hard, but they worked exceptionally hard this year. People who say that exams are getting easier just don't know what sort of work goes into producing results like these," he said.

Of the national pass rates, David Hart, general secretary of the teaching union National Association of Headteachers, said: "This year's results clearly demonstrate a good performance by many students but the boys are dragging down the results.

"There are no quick fix solutions to the problems caused by the anti-learning laddish culture.

"But solutions will have to be found if the Government's performance targets are to be met by the next election."

Business leaders said they were concerned at the number of youngsters failing to do well in basic subjects, such as English and maths.

Margaret Murray, head of learning and skills with the Confederation of British Industry said: "Employers are concerned that just under half of young people fail to achieve this standard in maths, and 40 per cent fail to do so in English."

The Government described the widening of the gender gap, which narrowed in 2001, as "worrying" while examiners called for research to be carried out on why girls continue to do better in virtually all GCSE subjects.

NAHT general secretary David Hart warned there was "not a cat in hell's chance" of ensuring more teenagers got Cs or better unless boys raised their game.

Headline statistics for England, Wales and Northern Ireland showed the proportion of GCSE entries awarded the four top grades, A to C, rose 0.8 per cent to 57.9 per cent while the proportion of A to G passes stayed the same at 97.9 per cent.