Fifteen superstars at Spalding Grammar School were among those opening fabulous A-level results this morning that will propel them to university or help them take the first steps towards a career.
Head boy Edward White gained the top results – two A*s and an A – and will head off to Durham University in September to study earth science.
He said: “It was quite stressful leading up to it. I wasn’t sure if I would get the grades and the university.”
Former Donington Thomas Cowley High School pupil Luke Cowdell was in the top 15 students too and he’s landed a place at Cambridge University to study law after gaining one A* and two As.
Luke said: “If you had told me two years ago I would be going to Cambridge, I would have told you that you were joking.”
The overall A-level pass rate at the grammar school was 98 per cent, the same as last year, but the “value added” – pupils achieving better than their predicted results – was up on last year.
There was a slight dip in the A*-C pass rate, down from last year’s 67 per cent to 65 and a similar slip in the A*-B pass rate, down from last year’s 39 per cent to 36.
The happy voices of students, teachers and parents filled the school this morning.
Some students hit their phones to read results to parents who were at home or at work – while others had a more relaxed approach, having already shared the news of their university place successes after making early-morning online visits to the UCAS website.
It was a day of mixed emotions for headteacher Nigel Ryan as he reached another in a series of final milestones on his way to official retirement on August 31.
He was in the hall with incoming head Steve Wilkinson to share in the students’ successes.
Mr Ryan was delighted to see the results achieved by the high-flyers, including Luke’s place at Cambridge, but he said the day was just as much about the other students who had been helped by the school to take their next step in education or a career.
“We celebrate and congratulate them – they are just as important as the people getting the top results,” he said.
• Students also in the top 15 were: Michael Lewis, James McGeown, Jason Kirlew, Alex Canham, Alfie Butler, Emily Wilkinson-Roberts, Alex Dormor, Sam Spendla, Enrico Stella, Ryan Brown, James Payne, Emily Thomas-Williams and Joshua Young.