Who would not expect Manchester United to do better than their neighbours Oldham Athletic?

Teachers' leader Nigel de Gruchy

Just over half the students at the 393 schools given specialist status by the autumn of 1999 scored top GCSE grades this year.

That was 10 points more than those in all other comprehensive and modern schools.

The government says its targeting of deprived areas is paying off - but teachers' unions say it risks widening the gap between the best and the worst.

Click here for a table of the most improved schools
Click here for the full school tables

To become specialists, schools have to raise �50,000 in sponsorship and put in a bid to the Department for Education showing how they intend to raise standards.

Targets to meet

If they succeed, they get �100,000 and another �123 per pupil for four years - whereupon they can apply to renew their specialist status.

Of the 109 schools which have most improved their performance since 1997, 26 are specialists - far more than their proportion among schools as a whole.

Nigel de Gruchy, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers said: "It is wholly unsurprising that specialist schools and others given additional resources are improving their results at a faster rate.

"Who would not expect Manchester United to do better than their neighbours Oldham Athletic?"

The most improved school is an arts specialist - The St Marylebone CofE School in central London, a girls' comprehensive.

Its score of the top, A*-C grades, has gone from 39% of its pupils achieving them in 1997 to 89% this year - a 50 points improvement.

The head teacher, Elizabeth Phillips, aims for excellence - but attacks the annual performance tables as promoting a sort of "academic apartheid".

More on the way

There are now 550 schools specialising in the arts, technology, languages or sport.

"Our policies are working," says the education secretary

More than a third are in disadvantaged inner city areas and have a relatively high proportion - 33% - of pupils entitled to free school meals.

The government is committed to having 1,000 of them by 2004 - almost a third of all secondary schools.

The Education Secretary, David Blunkett, also highlighted improved results at institutions which have had extra money under the Excellence in Cities programme.

Mr Blunkett said some of the schools that had improved the most were to be found in deprived areas of cities such as Birmingham, Liverpool and Sheffield.

Poor performers under scrutiny

He confirmed he would consider closing about 100 schools in which fewer than 15% of the students are getting five A*-Cs if they do not improve over three years, as he announced in March.

He said such low performance was unacceptable and promised they would be given extra resources and help to improve.

He is confident most will raise their standards - pointing out that more than six hundred failing schools have been turned round since he came to office.

Unions want more for all

The Liberal Democrats' education spokesman, Phil Willis, said the tables "expose the failure of government policy to bridge the growing divide between high achieving and low achieving schools."

Phil Willis: "New underclass created"

"By measuring all schools against simplistic national targets based on middle class expectations it was inevitable that the gap would widen," he said.

"The demoralisation of pupils, their parents and their teachers over their constant exposure to failure and criticism from the government has created a new educational underclass."

The general secretary of the National Association of Head Teachers, David Hart, said: "Until all secondary schools are treated equally and fairly, the yawning gap between the highest and lowest will get wider and wider."

The National Union of Teachers leader, Doug McAvoy, said the tables continued to penalise schools working against the odds.

"Schools which have to work to overcome, for example, socio-economic deprivation, disillusion with education fed by low expectations among parents, high levels of homelessness, do not get the credit they deserve."

A senior government source expressed annoyance at their comments.

It was, he said, "quite disgraceful" for union leaders to be undermining schools' achievements at a time when they should be celebrated.

What had made the difference in the most improved schools was not money but targets and extra support.

Most improved schools

The table below shows the top 100 or so schools whose GCSE performance - the percentage getting at least five A*-C grades - has most improved between 1997 and 2000 without declining at all.

The figures show the percentage points increase over the four years.

Click the name of any school for a page detailing its performance.

SCHOOL and LEA
The St Marylebone CofE School, Westminster, City of	50
International College, Sherborne School, Dorset	37
Selly Park Technology College for Girls, Birmingham	35
The Cardinal Wiseman Roman Catholic School, Ealing	30
Nidderdale High School and Community College, North Yorkshire	30
Bridgewater School, Salford	30
Lodge Park School, Northamptonshire	29
Hillview School for Girls, Kent	28
Colston's Collegiate School, Bristol, City of	28
Bacon's College, Southwark	27
De Brus School, Redcar and Cleveland	27
Chailey School, East Sussex	26
St Wilfrid's Catholic Comprehensive School, West Sussex	25
The Woodroffe School, Dorset	25
Brighouse High School, Calderdale	24
Leiston Community High School, Suffolk	24
Kings Norton Girls' School, Birmingham	24
Parkview School, Cumbria	23
St Peter's Catholic Comprehensive School,, Surrey	23
Aston Manor School, Birmingham	23
Bircotes and Harworth Community School, Nottinghamshire	23
Teign School, Devon	22
MacMillan College, Middlesbrough	22
St Michael's Catholic High School, Barnsley	22
Hayle Community School, Cornwall	22
The Banovallum School, Horncastle, Lincolnshire	22
The King David High School, Manchester	22
Gordon's School, Surrey	22
The Wyvern Technical College, Hampshire	21
Fallibroome High School, Cheshire	21
The Castle School, Somerset	21
Whitgift School, North East Lincolnshire	21
The Nelson Thomlinson School, Cumbria	21
Oaklands School, Tower Hamlets	21
Greenacre School, Medway	21
Sir John Cass Foundation and Redcoat CofE Sec, Tower Hamlets	21
Holmesdale Community School, Kent	21
George Abbot School, Surrey	20
Cheam High School, Sutton	20
Birchwood Community High School, Warrington	20
Chingford Foundation School, Waltham Forest	20
The Long Eaton School, Derbyshire	20
The Robert Manning Technology College, Lincolnshire	20
The Bromfords School, Essex	20
Lampton School, Hounslow	20
St Peter's Collegiate Church of England School, Wolverhampton	20
Churchmead School, Windsor and Maidenhead	20
La Retraite Roman Catholic Girls' School, Lambeth	20
Wigmore High School, Herefordshire	20
St Philip Howard Catholic School, Derbyshire	20
The Hayesbrook School, Kent	20
Portland Place School, Westminster, City of	20
Alsager School, Cheshire	19
Helena Romanes School and Sixth Form Centre, Essex	19
Park House School, West Berkshire	19
The Appleton School, Essex	19
Quarrydale School, Nottinghamshire	19
St Philomena's School, Sutton	19
Middleton Technology School, Rochdale	19
The Highfield School, Hertfordshire	19
Oxstalls Community School, Gloucestershire	19
Rawthorpe High School, Kirklees	19
Edgecliff High School, Staffordshire	19
Queen's Gate School, Kensington and Chelsea	19
Wolfreton School, East Riding of Yorkshire	18
The King Edward VI School, Northumberland	18
The John of Gaunt School, Wiltshire	18
Graveney School, Wandsworth	18
The Summerhill School, Dudley	18
Blackfen School for Girls, Bexley	18
The Bishop's Blue Coat C of E High School, Cheshire	18
Whitburn School, South Tyneside	18
The Marlborough Church of England School, Oxfordshire	18
Bishop Milner Catholic School, Dudley	18
Eckington School, Derbyshire	17
Barking Abbey Comprehensive School, Barking and Dagenham	17
Saddleworth School, Oldham	17
Park View Community School, Durham	17
Mill Hill High School, Barnet	17
Small Heath School, Birmingham	17
Wellington School, Trafford	17
Mellow Lane School, Hillingdon	17
Bishop Ramsey CofE Voluntary Aided Secondary, Hillingdon	17
St Peter's Catholic School, Solihull	17
St John Bosco High School, Liverpool	17
All Hallows Catholic High School, Lancashire	17
Thomas Telford School, Telford and Wrekin	17
The Nobel School, Hertfordshire	17
Haygrove School, Somerset	17
Roundwood Park School, Hertfordshire	17
The Coseley School, Dudley	17
Waseley Hills High School and Sixth Form Centre, Worcestershire	17
Kingstone High School, Herefordshire	17
The Leys School, Cambridgeshire	17
The Kingstone School, Barnsley	16
Robert Clack School, Barking and Dagenham	16
The Deepings School, Lincolnshire	16
Holyhead School, Birmingham	16
Wyndham School, Cumbria	16
Stoke High School, Suffolk	16
Ashdown School, Poole	16
Golden Hillock Community School, Birmingham	16
The Snaith School, East Riding of Yorkshire	16
The Forest School, West Sussex	16
Sacred Heart Roman Catholic Secondary School, Southwark	16
Sturminster Newton High School, Dorset	16
Hope Valley College, Derbyshire	16
Ampleforth College, North Yorkshire	16
Moor Park High School, Lancashire	16

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