TEACHERS say they are "devastated" and are demanding an apology from the Government after their school was given the wrong score in GCSE league tables.

Staff at New Line Learning Oldborough, formerly known as Oldborough Manor Community School, in Boughton Lane, Maidstone, feel let down because the crucial measure of achievement – the proportion of students gaining five or more GCSEs at grades A* to C – was wrongly listed as 20 per cent in league tables issued by the Department for Education and Skills. The correct score was 33 per cent.

To add to their woes, the tables also revealed – correctly – it has one of the worst truancy records in the country.

Deputy head teacher Russell Sauntry said the error had happened because the DFES had not counted the GNVQ results of 28 candidates, even though the school had sent off the relevant forms.

Each candidate sat exams for one GNVQ, which is equivalent to four GCSEs. But the DFES score shows only the GCSE exam results.

Mr Sauntry said: “We are a school that’s gone through the mill.

“I arrived two years ago, as the school was on its way down and the head teacher left suddenly. Now we have a new head, a new senior management team and we’ve improved results by 300 per cent.

“We are on the crest of a wave. The kids are all tuning in and the staff are all up for it, but people will read that result and say it’s all rubbish.

"It's soul destroying. You work 12, 13, 14 hours a day to try and turn things round and then the DFES do this.”

A spokesman for the DFES said the results were collated by the exam board and then went through a lengthy checking process by various contractors before being published.

She said: “We are doing an errata – putting it on the website and making sure it’s right in the booklet that is published.”

However, New Line Learning Oldborough is battling with one of the worst truancy rates in the country. League tables show the mixed comprehensive school had lost an average of

5.9 half days per pupil, putt-ing it among the worst 30 schools in the country for attendance, according to the Daily Telegraph.

Mr Sauntry said: “We are battling social problems as well as educational ones. We have a rigorous attendance policy and a dedicated attendance officer, and we have just changed the structure of our day to improve punctuality.”