THE Cotswolds is officially home to the best comprehensive school in the country, according to a prestigious league table.

Students, parents and teachers are celebrating after Bourton-on-the-Water’s The Cotswold School was named the Sunday Times' Comprehensive School of the Year 2015/16, published yesterday.

The school, off Station Road, which has had four consecutive Outstanding Ofsted reports, made it onto the list in 2014 but this year made a surge to 12th after an excellent showing of GCSE and A Level results.

It was handed School of the Year as an additional accolade.

Nearly 90 per cent of students achieved five or more GCSE grades at A* to C, 75 per cent of whom received the same grade in English and maths.

Asked the secret of The Cotswold Schools success, headteacher Will Morgan said: “Happy students and staff, and a lot of hard work!

“The only way we can achieve what we do at The Cotswold School is through hard work – and that’s from all of us. Teaching and non-teaching staff, students and Governors are all committed to our pupils excelling as individuals.

“And our parents and carers show that commitment too. We do not work hard in isolation. We work hard as a team.”

He added that receiving “such national recognition” by The Sunday Times was especially pleasing considering the ongoing changes to the national curriculum, the “more robust exam requirements” and “the increasing need for schools like ours to produce more and more with decreasing funding”.

“I have had the privilege of leading The Cotswold School since 2011 and I said at the time, it was like getting the opportunity to captain the sports team that you’ve backed all your life,” he said. “This holds just as true today. I am extraordinarily lucky. There is a warm and welcoming ethos here and it’s a place where everyone, whatever their background or abilities can shine. Being a Welshman in The Cotswold School, I have seen this first hand!”