WE’RE the best in the west – students, staff and governors at Beaminster School have been celebrating after receiving a special award.

They were delighted after the school scooped the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust honour for High Achievement at GCSE during 2010.

Headmaster Mike Best said that the school also had good reason to celebrate the publication of the new government league tables as Beaminster did particularly well.

He said that the key government measures are the number of students who pass five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C, including English and Maths.

And secondly, the number of pupils who achieved A* to C passes at GCSE in the five subjects required by the English Baccalaureate (Ebacc) award. These measures focus on numeracy, literacy and the breadth of the curriculum. Mr Best said that Beaminster School came top of the West Dorset table for both of the measures.

He added: “We are delighted with these outcomes. “They confirm what we know already, that Beaminster is a really good school with excellent outcomes for our students.” In the first measure – GCSE results including English and Maths – Beaminster students achieved 65 per cent, compared to 64 per cent for Woodroffe School and 51 per cent for Sir John Colfox School.

National rate was 53.4 per cent.

In the second measure – achievement of the EBacc certificate – Beaminster Students achieved 25 per cent – the highest in the area.

The national percentage was 15.6 per cent.