Medway schools are celebrating their best ever GCSE exam results - the fourth year in a row that results have improved and reflective of the hard work of school pupils and teachers alike.

The Department for Children, Schools and Families (DCSF), have shown that a larger number of Medway students have gained five or more GCSE (or equivalent) passes at A* to C grades than ever before, and have exceeded the national average. The students took these exams in the summer of 2008.

Several years ago, the government set a target to ensure that at least 30 per cent of pupils in Medway should achieved five A* to C grade at GCSE level or equivalent by 2008. Every school surpassed this target, reflective of the hard work of teachers and support staff and the effort put in by those studying and taking exams.

Medway schools have also matched the national average of 48 per cent in the number of students achieving five or more GCSE (or equivalent) grades at A* to C including English and mathematics.

In 2008, the Labour government introduced a new national strategy. This includes continued support funding for individual schools where fewer than 30 per cent of pupils achieve five or more GCSEs at A* to C including English and mathematics.

Cllr Teresa Murray, the Labour candidate for Rochester & Strood, has congratulated pupils, parents and teachers

"The results show the combined efforts of pupils and teachers and let no one say that there results are undeserved. As someone who works in education, I see first hand how hard our young people work to achieve these well deserved results. We need to continue to put funding into post-16 education, to raise the aspirations of all our young people through increased vocational apprenticeships and university places."