This year's GCSE students consolidated Sutton's reputation as one of the country's best education authorities by improving upon an already excellent results record.

Last year, 68 per cent of students in the borough got at least five GCSEs at grade C or above, but this year 72 per cent of pupils gained five or more A* to C grades.

Responding to the results, lead councillor for education Tony Brett Young congratulated students for keeping Sutton among the highest achieving authorities in England.

He said: "Traditionally, Sutton is one of the best performing authorities for producing good GCSE results and I am sure that once again we will be near the top of the national league table."

At two of the borough's schools - Wilson's School and Sutton Grammar School for Boys - 100 per cent of GCSE students got a minimum of five A* to C grades - a feat both schools also achieved last year.

Damien Charnock, headteacher at Wilson's School, said: "We are delighted with these results, which are the rewards for some very hard work by the pupils and teachers."

Elsewhere in the borough, three schools - Nonsuch High, Wallington High, and Sutton High - achieved a 99.5 per cent of students getting five or more A* to C grades.

At Wallington High School for Girls, 72 per cent of students got all A* or A grades and one pupil - Danielle Murrell - achieved 13 A* grades including a French mark which was in the top five in the country.

Headteacher Barbara Greatorex, said: "Some people think that it is easy for our girls to pass because they are all highly able but they worked very hard for these results and I am proud of all of them."

Outstanding pupils were also to be found at Wallington County Grammar School where two students - James Barnett and David Segurola - achieved an English literature result in the top five nationally.

Headteacher Dr Martin Haworth said: "The results are very much as expected. It is brilliant that two boys are among the top five from more than 362,000 entrants across the country."

At several schools in the borough, this years results represented a big leap forward with the number of pupils getting five or more A* to C grades going up markedly from 2005.

In particular, the amount of students getting at least five A* to C grades at Glenthorne High School went up by 11 per cent.

Headteacher Steve Hume said: "We are delighted with our GCSE results this year, 69 per cent of our pupils gained at least 5 A* to C grades.

"These are our best results ever by far."

Equally satisfied with a set of results which exceeded expectations, were Carshalton High School for Girls, John Fisher School, Overton Grange and Cheam High.

Top of the class? - students gaining five or more A*-C GCSE grades (%)

Sutton Grammar School for Boys 100
Wilson's School 100
Nonsuch High School for Girls 99.5
Wallington High School for Girls 99.5
Sutton High School for Girls 99.5
Wallington County Grammar School 99.2
John Fisher School 78.1
Glenthorne High School 69
Overton Grange School 66
Cheam High School 64
Greenshaw High School 58
Carshalton High School for Girls 49
Carshalton Boys' Sports College 28