Hundreds of state schools are today shown as having at least one in ten of their pupils playing truant regularly.

One in ten schools failed to achieve the Government's minimum target of five top grade GCSE passes including maths and English, with the gap between rich and poor pupils growing, league tables published yesterday showed.

The phrase "rising like a phoenix from the ashes" has rarely seemed so apt. Fifteen years ago, when William Atkinson – now Sir William as a result of his services to education – took over the running of Phoenix High School in Shepherd's Bush, west London, only four per cent of its pupils achieved five top-grade GCSE passes. Today, it stands at the top of the Government's exam league tables for improved performance with a figure of 96 per cent.

State grammar schools took the top two places in this year's A-level league table, beating all of those in the independent sector.

Record numbers of students gained first-class degrees last summer.

The top independent schools are accelerating a drift away from A-levels and GCSEs, according to a major study out today.