THERE were plenty of happy faces and tears of joy at Okehampton College last Thursday morning as students turned out to collect their GCSE results.

The college achieved 67% of students gaining five A* to C grades including maths and English. This is a 5% increase on last year’s results which were 62%.

In the English Baccalaureate, or EBacc, a performance measure for schools awarded when students secure a C grade or above at GCSE across English, maths, the sciences, a language and either history or geography, the school secured a 36% result. This is also up on last year’s results, which were around 28%.

College principal Daryll Chapman said he was very pleased with the school’s results. He said: ‘In a time of adversity in education and changes to exams, we are delighted with how our students have done. Our Ebacc result is excellent and very much up on last year so we are pleased about that.

‘One of the best things for me is that we have an excellent value added score. This is a measure of progress students make between different stages of education so that school students progress well here.’

College vice principal Derrick Brett said:’The relief is incredible when the results do come in and we are very pleased with how it has gone.

‘In maths we have had fantastic results. We were told that exams would possibly be more difficult this year and grades may be affected but ours have improved so we are bucking that trend.

‘We are all very pleased. It is down to the hard work of our students who have shown their usual maturity as they make their way through their GCSEs. Our staff also deserve a great amount of credit for their dedication and efforts. It is the start of a new school year now and we hope next year’s students have the same success.’

Among those to pick up their results was Lucy Creamer. She achieved an A*, two As, six Bs and a C.

She said: ‘I am so happy. I was so worried last night before picking up my exam results so I am just feeling amazing right now. I’m going on to do my A Levels and I got all the grades I needed so I am very happy.’

Among the college’s highest achievers were Will Seaton-Burn and Mollie Rickwood with nine A*s and two As, Victoria Mugliston, Jessica James and Elisa Nightingale with eight A*s and three As and Matthew Stoner and Holly Harbron with six A*s and four As.