It has been a year of ups and downs for Bradford schools, according to the latest league tables.

The tables, released yesterday, reveal record GCSE results but a decline in A-level results.

The district fell 17 places, to 120th of 150 local authorities, for the average A-level points scored by students last year.

Across Bradford, students received an average of 658 points last summer, compared to 699 points the year before. The national average also fell, from 746 to 733 points.

But it is a different picture for GCSEs, with Bradford celebrating its best results.

The league tables show 52.4 per cent of GCSE pupils achieved the Government’s benchmark of at least five A* to C grades, including English and maths, up from 47.5 per cent last year.

The district rose nine places in the rankings, to 135th of 151 local authorities.

Although it is the worst performing district in West Yorkshire, Bradford is now only seven percentage points behind the national average, compared to 10.7 percentage points last year.

Councillor Ralph Berry, executive member for children’s services, said: “These record results are evidence of the hard work going on in our secondary schools to close the gap with the national performance.”

He said he was delighted the gap between Bradford’s GCSE results and the national average had narrowed.

He said: “Congratulations should go to the students and all who have helped them bring about this achievement. We are working with our secondary schools to bring about further improvements as we cannot be complacent.”

The GCSE league tables for Bradford were dominated by two independent schools – Bradford Grammar School in first place and Bradford Girls’ Grammar in second. At Bradford Girls’ Grammar, the figure was 97 per cent.

The district’s best performing state school was Bingley Grammar at which 79 per cent of pupils achieved the benchmark pass rate, placing the school third in the Bradford league table.

For A-levels, Bradford’s league table was topped by Ilkley Grammar, an academy. Students there scored an average of 932.9 points in their exams.

At Bingley Grammar, which came in fourth place in the Bradford league table, students achieved an average of 903.9 A-level points.

Both Ilkley Grammar and Bingley Grammar were placed in the country’s top 200 state schools for A-level results.

In the GCSE rankings, North Yorkshire was placed 13th in the country, Kirklees was in 37th place, Calderdale was 50th and Leeds was 123rd.

In the A-level rankings for local authorities, both Kirklees and North Yorkshire featured in the top ten, at fourth and tenth respectively.

Calderdale was ranked 24th and Leeds was ranked 53rd.