LIVERPOOL students were today celebrating a hat-trick of GCSE successes after the city was named the North West’s most improved.

Last night the city’s education officials hailed the “seismic shift” and said a willingness of schools to work together and good use of investment had helped pupils thrive.

As we revealed yesterday, provisional GCSE results show the number of Liverpool pupils gaining five or more A* to C grades has increased from 73% to 83%.

Nationally, students could only manage a 2% rise to 69.1%.

And for the first time the percentage of pupils in the city getting five Cs or above including maths and English has jumped almost 9% to 53%.

It means Liverpool is almost certainly going to be above the national average – published in October – for the first time.

And completing a hat-trick of triumphs, government statistics show that the 8.7% improvement is the biggest annual percentage rise in the North West.

Ian Andain, chairman of teacher body the Liverpool Schools Forum, said a conscious move by schools to be more open to their counterparts had helped breed success across the city.