NEW West Somerset Community College principal Gaynor Comber has accepted "significant progress" needs to be made after the college finished in the bottom ten in the 2012 secondary school league tables for Somerset.

Out of 40 secondaries in the county, the college came 31st for the number of pupils who achieved five good GCSEs or equivalent, while Kingsmead Academy in Wiveliscombe came 18th.

The college was 27th out of 29 schools under the 'value added' criteria - or how much a pupil has increased their academic ability during their time at the school or college - while Kingsmead came ninth.

And out of the 25 schools listed for the A and AS Level performances, the West Somerset Community College was in 22nd place.

Mrs Comber, who took over from long-standing retiring principal Nick Swann last September, said: "Whilst the college was delighted with a significant number of individual students' results, we are aware that there is still progress to be made in some areas.

"I relish the challenge that this poses and I am working hard, with all the college staff, to ensure that every individual student achieves their full potential."

Nationally, the Government set schools a target of achieving at least a 40 per cent pass rate of pupils achieving five A*-C passes at GCSE level in either English literature, physics, biology, chemistry, geography, history and languages.

College students were well above the target figure with a pass rate of 49 per cent, while Kingsmead achieved a 67 per cent pass level.

While independent schools topped the GCSE pass rate list, the top performing state school in Somerset was Taunton's Heathfield Community School, which also took the top spot for value added performance.

Sexey's School in Bruton was the top state performer at A and AS Level, coming fourth in the table, just ahead of Richard Huish College in Taunton in fifth place. Bridgwater College came 20th out of 25.