Underachievement in some ethnic minorities is an ongoing problem

The average amount of pupils nationally gaining five or more A-C grades is 51%, with that figure for Caribbean pupils being just 30%.

At St Martin-in-the-Fields High School for Girls in Tulse Hill, Lambeth, a third of pupils are from the ethnic group, and 66% of those pupils who sat their GCSEs last summer reached the required level.

Three-quarters of boys with Caribbean origins who attend Archbishop Tenison's School in Oval, Lambeth also achieved that benchmark.

Lesley Morrison, headteacher of St Martin-in-the-Fields, told BBC London underachievement in certain ethnic minority groups had been a problem for the past 30 years.

She said: "The challenge is now for schools is to embrace it and say, 'Right lets do something about it now, along with the whole community'."

'High expectations'

"The problem is that the community and the schools haven't worked together enough, we haven't shared good practice and also, we haven't embraced the fact that there is such a thing as institutional racism within certain institutions, within our community."

Brian Jones, head teacher of Archbishop Tenison's said: "We've got high expectations.

"We expect them to work to the best of their ability and the vast majority of them do."

This if the first time the government has produced figures which compare achievement to ethinicity.

Pupils of Chinese origin performed the best, with 73% achieving good results nationally.