A BASINGSTOKE school has been recognised for an impressive increase in the number of pupils hitting the national GCSE benchmark with an award.

As previously reported by The Gazette, 52 per cent of pupils at The Vyne Community School achieved five GCSEs between A* and C, including English and maths.

This was an 18 per cent increase from the figure in 2013 when just 34 per cent of pupils at the school achieved the national benchmark.

The Vyne senior leadership team, which includes headteacher Mark Kingswood, deputy headteacher Jim Eddie and assistant headteachers Kevin Light and Sarah Kemp, were presented with an award by Sir John Rowling – the chairman of The PiXl Club last month.

The PiXl Club is an organisation that works with secondary schools, sixth forms and primary schools to raise standards in GCSE, A-level and Key Stage Two results by offering a range of online resources, training opportunities and development programmes.

The school started a partnership with the organisation last year when current headteacher Mr Kingswood took over the top job at the school.

Pupils at The Vyne achieved the highest increase in their GCSE results compared with 400 other schools in The Vyne’s PiXl region.

Mr Eddie told The Gazette: “We were hoping we would improve and hoping we would go up by this much, and that is partly because of the work with PiXl and also because there were so many people who have done well.”

He added: “It is good news for the school and better news for the Year 11 students who finished here in the summer.

“It was the head’s first year, and it was really a testament to what he has managed to achieve in his first year.”