Chart shows the percentage of pupils at each school who achieved 5 GCSEs at A*-C including English and maths.

THE principal of a leading Merseyside school said "consistency" and a wide choice of subjects was behind its continued GCSE success – before taking a swipe at the new English baccalaureate measure.

Merchant Taylors’ Girls School in Crosby is again top of the tree in Sefton.

The percentage of pupils achieving five good GCSEs including maths and English in 2010 was near perfect 98%.

And in the new English baccalaureate measure which shows the proportion of a school’s pupils getting at least a C in English, maths, science, a language and either geography or history at GCSE – the pass rate was 78%.

Headmistress, Louise Robinson said the English baccalaureate measure did not tell the full story of a school’s performance.

She said: "We challenge our students requiring them all to take GCSEs in a modern foreign language, three full sciences or a double award science as well as English and Maths.

"We also offer the less traditional subjects such as Latin/classics, astronomy and religious studies which are not counted as part of the baccalaureate assessment.

"It’s because of this, along with the expertise of staff and support of parents, that our girls consistently achieve high results."

See a full table of Sefton's results>>>>>