CELEBRATIONS were in the air as Queen’s Park High School students collected their GCSE results.

Over 200 15- and 16-year-olds arrived for their results awash with nerves and excitement, before smiles and shrieks of happiness filled the air when the all-important envelopes were opened.

Headteacher Andrew Firman said: “With the support of parents and carers at home, students and teachers have made a tremendous effort to gain good results.

“I am delighted for those students who achieved five or more grades at A and A*, whilst students in the year group with a variety of special educational needs worked exceptionally hard to overcome their learning difficulties and achieved several GCSEs each.

“I am immensely proud of our students, many of whom will be returning to school next month to start on new courses in our sixth form. They are a credit to themselves and their families.”

Among the success stories at Queen’s Park High School was Emma Hill, who gained 11 outstanding results, including nine A* and two A passes.

Emma even achieved one of the top 10 marks in the country in her French GCSE.

A letter from Edexcel, the UK’s largest awarding body, shows that out of 47,211 candidates Emma achieved one of the highest overall marks.

She also achieved grade A in AS level French qualification normally taken a year later.

Other top performers who gained a string of high grades including the core subjects of English, maths and science, were: Rosie Butters, seven A*s and two As; Bridget Collin, eight A*s and two As; Laura Humphreys, six A*s and three As; Katy Lorimer, five A*s and five As); Molly O’Brien Manley, three A*s and seven As; Daniel Shepherd, five A*s and seven As; Chris Thomas, five A*s and five As; Alice Walton, two A*s and seven As; Tom Watt, two A*s and eight As; Rebecca Williams , five A*s and six As; and Tom Young, eight A*s and three As.

The languages faculty celebrated some exceptional results this year.

Year seven student Daniella Hyatt was entered early for GCSE in Spanish and gained an outstanding A* grade.

Year 11 student Karmen Truong was entered for GCSE in Chinese, and gained an outstanding A* grade.

Laurent Blom in year nine was entered early for GCSE in his home language, Dutch, and achieved a grade B.

Tatiana Verdnikova in year 11 and Anna Verdnikova in year 12 both achieved grade As in AS Russian, their home language.

Graham Westoby, Year 11 Year Learning Manager said: “It has been a pleasure to work with this year group and I am very proud of the results our students have achieved. They have worked very hard in conjunction with their teachers to achieve these results.

“Many students took advantage of extra support from mentors and the revision programmes that we offered outside school hours and in structured coaching sessions in the lead up to the exams. This has paid real dividends for them.”