PUPILS at King Edward’s School Witley celebrated a year of record GCSE results.

Bucking the national trend, the mixed-ability day and boarding school, which was graded as excellent in every area by inspectors last year, saw virtually all its year 11 pupils gain at least five A*-C grades, with over 90 per cent of subjects taken achieving the A*-C benchmark, and its best ever haul of the top grades A and A*.

Among many personal triumphs, Ching Ya Ho, from Berkshire, celebrated an outstanding nine A*s and one A in the exams, which included several IGCSEs, often regarded as more rigorous than the national GCSE. Ya Ho, who also captained King Edward’s U16 football team to become National Schools Champions last May, will study the IB Diploma at King Edward’s sixth form.

Also celebrating nine A*s, an A and a B was Remi Trovo from Wormley, while Albury’s Jasper Whitefield gained six A*s, three As and a B, and Scarlett Thornton, from Bramley, was delighted with her nine As and one B.

Headmaster John Attwater said: “I am so delighted with the year-on-year improvement our GCSE results are showing, but in particular that this year’s cohort have had the success they deserve.

“As a group they worked and played hard and got the balance between all-round learning and preparing for the exams just right. A lot of hard work and great teaching lies behind their success today. They can be very proud and I look forward to welcoming them back into the sixth form in a couple of weeks.”

The overall pass rate was 100 per cent, subjects graded A*-C 91.4 per cent, the percentage of pupils gaining five A*-C was 96.4 per cent. The percentage gaining five A*-C grades including English and maths or IGCSE was 91.3 per cent, and 43.8 per cent of pupils were awarded A*-A grades.