Thurrock's education chief has vowed continuing support for the borough's schools in special measures following disappointing GCSE results.

Carl Morris, deputy leader of the council and cabinet member for education, believes programmes of support and additional resources in place will turn the situation around.

"I'm not denying results are poor at some of our schools which are facing the greatest difficulties," he said.

"We're tackling these problems head on. The chronic shortage of teachers across the country has added to the problems in schools which are struggling, but we've brought additional expertise into the department and it is now headed by a new director and a new senior management team.

"We are also working closely with headteachers and governors in each of the schools concerned to bring standards up to the level of the best schools in Thurrock."

The three secondary schools in special measures are St Chad's, Tilbury, where only nine per cent of pupils collected five or more GCSEs at A* to C; Torells, Grays, where the figure was 17 per cent and the Ockendon School, where just a quarter of pupils hit that target. Twenty-nine per cent of pupils left St Chad's without a single GCSE pass.

But Mr Morris was full of praise for other schools. Grays Convent and Gable Hall in Corringham both beat the national average of 57 per cent of five A* to C passes.

"Most of our schools have achieved very good results indeed," said Mr Morris.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.