TEENAGE students in Cumbria outperformed both the North West and national averages in this year's GCSE results breakdown.

The provisional results for GCSE and equivalent examinations, released by the Department for Education and Skills, will be used to form next year's league tables.

Nationally, 53.4 per cent of students passed five or more exams at A* to C grades but Cumbria edged above that with a rate of 54.7 per cent.

Cumbrian girls were brainier than boys in the top tier breakdown, with 60.6 per cent of girls passing five exams at A* to C but only 48.9 per cent of boys achieving the same feat.

Across the board, girls continued to outperform boys, particularly at the higher grades.

In the North West, 50.1 per cent of students got five passes at A* to C.

It was a similar pattern with the broader measurement of the amount of students who gained five passes at A* to G grades.

An average of 90.3 per cent of Cumbrian 15 and 16-year-olds achieved those passes, with the North West average at 89 per cent and the average for England at 86.4 per cent.

Last year, Cumbria's students surpassed the national average of 52.9 per cent of students passing five exams at A* to C by 0.1 per cent.

This year's DfES figures show that the Government has missed one of its biggest national targets for GCSE results this summer.

The proportion of students getting at least five A* to C grades in GCSEs, or their vocational equivalent, rose by 0.5 per cent to 53.4 per cent this year but the target demands rises of two per cent each year.

Another target required 92 per cent of 16-year-olds to pass at least five GCSEs this year in subjects including English and maths but the proportion fell from 86.6 per cent last year to 86.4 per cent this year.