THE director of Darlington's Education Village has defended the school after it recorded the town's worst GCSE level results.

The £37.3m building, which opened in April last year, houses Haughton Secondary School, Springfield Primary School, and Beaumont Hill Technology College, for children with special needs.

But in its first academic year in the new building, Haughton's GCSE results slumped.

Last year, 42.5 per cent of pupils gained the benchmark five A* to Cs. However, the figure has fallen to 31.1 per cent.

Haughton also recorded the biggest drop in performance - 11.4 per cent. Only two other schools, Longfield and Hummersknott, recorded drops - of 3.4 and 3.7 per cent respectively.

Dame Dela Smith, the Education Village's executive director, said: "Since September 2006 we have been working hard to address a number of issues in Haughton School.

"Unfortunately, when tackling challenging circumstances, it is usual to experience a dip in performance.

"Over the past three terms we have identified a need to make radical improvements at GCSE level.

"Last term, we engaged the services of Hurworth School to provide consultancy support to accelerate progress, which is evidenced by significant improvements at Key Stage 3 this year - we have seen a 21.6 per cent increase in English, a 12.5 per cent increase in science and 2.9 per cent increase in maths."

Dame Dela Smith said overall exclusions had decreased, while attendance had increased.

Hurworth topped Darlington's school league table and broke its own LEA record set last year, with 96.3 per cent of pupils achieving five A* to Cs.

At Carmel, 82.4 per cent of pupils hit the benchmark, ahead of Hummersknott with 67.1 per cent and Branksome on 58.3 per cent. Branksome's results improved by 11.7 per cent - the second biggest increase behind Eastbourne, which had a 25.6 per cent rise.

Councillor Chris McEwan, Darlington Borough Council's cabinet member for children's services, praised teachers, staff, parents, local communities and pupils.