Students happy at top grades

Emotions were running high today as thousands of teenagers around the region picked up their all-important A-level results.

Some nervous students were at the school gates as early as 8am to see if they had made the grade to move on to their chosen university.

But the anxiety proved to be unnecessary for most as the region celebrated some of its best-ever results.

In Wolverhampton, staff and students at Smestow Specialist Sports College, in Castlecroft, were celebrating a 96 per cent pass rate.

Headteacher Des Ennis said: "We are really pleased with this year's performance. However, we are unhappy with the suggestion that somehow A-levels are getting easier. They are intellectually demanding, require hundreds of hours of study and in many ways are more challenging than 10 years ago."Pupil Mayan Patel, aged 18, of Compton, achieved straight As in maths, business and IT and is now off to study economics at Bristol University. "I wasn't expecting to get three As as maths was really hard. I can't wait to go to uni now." he said.

At Wolverhampton Girls' High, 80 per cent of students achieved A and B grades - the highest ever in the history of the Tettenhall Road school.

Wolverhampton Grammar School, in Compton Road, also achieved record-breaking results, with a perfect 100 per cent pass rate. Twenty-two of the 92 students who took the exams clocked up three or more straight As.

Pupils at Queen Mary's High, Upper Forster Street in Walsall, were celebrating after picking up 90 per cent grades and Wood Green High School in Wednesbury were among many schools celebrating its best A-level results yet.