A BASINGSTOKE secondary school has failed to hit the Government benchmark for GCSE results - but the head has vowed that next year, the school will be celebrating the grades that pupils achieve.

Just 34 per cent of pupils at The Vyne Community School achieved five GCSEs between A* and C, including English and maths, making it the worst performing school in the borough in the 2013 round of exam results. The figure, which is six per cent below the Government benchmark, represents a fall of 10 per cent on the school's results last year.

Mark Kingswood, headteacher at the school, in Vyne Road, told parents about the results in a letter. He had not given the benchmark figure to The Gazette on GCSE results day because he said there were problems obtaining all the figures from an exam board - although he declined to say which one.

He did, however, provide a figure for the number of pupils gaining five GCSEs between A* and C in any subject, which was 66 per cent - an increase of eight per cent on 2012. Mr Kingswood blamed the poor maths results for the benchmark figure. Describing the results as “an unfortunate blip”, he said: “There were just a number of students that were expected to get a C who got a D (in maths)... sometimes children don't perform in exams as well as you expect them to.”

Mr Kingswood, who took over as head in September, said that had the results been “as expected”, The Vyne would have achieved 46 per cent. Confident Mr Kingswood added: “Next year we will be celebrating the results.”

The headteacher said the “shift in grade boundaries” had also played a part. He added: “The results are not a reflection of the good quality of work that is going on at The Vyne.”

In his letter to parents, Mr Kingswood said that this year the school “celebrated some fantastic results” but he described the maths figure as “disappointing.”

He added: “You will have seen from the press that grade boundaries were moved upwards this year in core subjects and also that some other schools, both locally and nationally, were affected.

“The quality of teaching has improved immeasurably in maths at The Vyne over the past two years, and you can rely upon me to demonstrate the strong leadership necessary to support the department in improving still further. We certainly have high hopes in both English and maths for some fantastic results next year.”