THERE were smiles all round as swarms of students descended on Okehampton College last week to receive the eagerly anticipated results of all their hard work in their recent A-Levels.

The students’ hard work paid off as the college celebrated higher marks than the national average. Top results included Peter Yeo who gained three A*s, Shona Eustace with four As, Molly Petherbridge, four As, Emily Jopling with two A*s and one A and Ella Creamer, Matthew Milton and Lucy Redding-Smith who all achieved one A* and two As. Overall the college achieved a 99.5% pass rate.

Executive head teacher Daryll Chapman said the school was incredibly proud of the students’ achievements.

He said: ‘We are really, really pleased with the results, especially at a time when the national picture looks as though the top end results are down, ours have stayed up. We have had a 99.5 percent pass rate at A2 level, 31 percent of all A-level exams resulted in an A* or A grade and 63 percent of all the exams came back with an A* to B grade — this is well above national averages. This shows that we have improved on the top end results for our third consecutive year, hence we are bucking the national trend.

‘We are really delighted with the results and while we still have some information to find out, it looks as though the vast majority of the students seemed to have got into their first choice universities. The atmosphere here was electric because of the happiness of the students. We wish them all the best with the next stage of their education.’

Mr Chapman said the school was also pleased with the AS-level exam results which were ‘significantly better’ than last year and way above target.

‘We are very optimistic that those students will go on to achieve highly next year,’ he said.

Student Molly Petherbridge, who gained four As, said: ‘I’m pretty pleased with my results. I worked really hard and it has paid off. I will be sad to be leaving the school but I am very happy the exams are over!’

Molly will be going on to study languages with linguistics at York University. She said she was unsure what she wanted to do in the future but she enjoys languages, which is why she chose her university course.

The college will be celebrating again today (Thursday) as the students’ GCSE results are due to be released.