SURREY County Council is among the top-performing authorities at GCSE, according to an official breakdown of exams taken in 2015.

Figures released by the Department for Education show that almost two-thirds of pupils in the county in 2014/15 passed five GCSEs at grades A* to C including English and maths, making Surrey 16th out of 150 education authorities in England. The county was the 17th top performer last year.

Nationally 56.3% of pupils got five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C including the two core subjects, rising to 63.6% in Surrey.

Councillor Linda Kemeny, Surrey County Council’s cabinet member for schools, skills and educational achievement, said: “Against a background of spiralling demand for school places, it’s been another strong showing for Surrey at GCSE this year – testament to the hard work of head teachers, their teams and of course students themselves together with their parents and carers.

“We’ll continue doing all we can to raise education standards while at the same time pressing for more help to meet rising demand for school places – we need to create 13,000 more in the next five years, but face a funding shortfall of more than £30million in each of the next two years alone.”