Skipton Girls' High and the Ermysted's Grammar are ranked as the first and second top schools in the northern region according to the Sunday Times.

The list collates recent exam results and ranks them in a national order, rather than the existing Department of Education lists that are done according to county.

The Girls' High is 38th in the national list and Ermysted's 55th but they are first and second in the northern region, which consists of Yorkshire, Durham, Northumberland and Cumbria.

Girls' High headteacher Janet Renou said she was pleased with the accolade and had been sharing the news with the pupils in assembly this week.

She said the achievement was a tribute to the good working relationship between staff, parents and pupils.

Mrs Renou said academic qualifications were only one measure of what made a good school and that the whole of the Skipton area was endowed with schools that were successful for many reasons.

"I hope this focuses people's attention on the Skipton area being good for education," she added.

The Government is putting increasing weight to its "added value" survey, which compares GCSE exam results with the standard national tests taken by the same pupils at 14.

Added value ignores raw grades but concentrates on how much a school enables a pupil to make progress.

The Sunday Times has collated its top 50 schools for "added value" and the Girls' High has scored well in this, coming 18th.

The newspaper has also collated a national list of primary schools based on Standard Assessment Tests at age 11.

Embsay School has finished top locally and 343rd nationally in the list of larger primary schools while Grassington is 19th nationally on a list of the top 50 small primary schools.

These results will be out of date in a fortnight as the latest set of figures for primary schools are published by the Government.