MARLING School celebrated an excellent set of GCSE results, with the 117 Year 11 students achieving a 100 per cent pass rate, and an impressive 19 per cent achieving the highest A* grade.

Sixty students individually achieved five or more A*to A grades, 78 per cent recorded eight or more A* to B grades, while the figure for five or more A*to C grades, including English and maths, was 94 per cent.

The highest achievers were Andrew Wright and Cal Lazarus, who both achieved an amazing 11 A* grades, while Henry Richmond and Tobias Paterson achieved 10 A*s each.

Roland Foster, from Standish, was very pleased with his results, including 5 As. He said: “That’s better than I expected, and it’s nice to see a good result from all the hard work. I’m going on to Downfield where I’ll be studying economics, politics and government, biology and possibly history.”

Matt Elder, from Eastington, was delighted with his four A*s, four As, three Bs and a C. He said: “I’m most pleased with the biology grade as that was my least favourite subject. I’m now going on to Downfield to study further maths, maths, Spanish, French and physics, and I hope eventually to combine engineering with languages as a career.”

Meanwhile Dom Thompson from Framilode is setting his sights on a career in football. He said: “I got three As, five Bs and three Cs, and I’m now going to join Cheltenham Town Football Club, starting a BTech course in soccer. I’m really pleased with the A in Spanish as that’s the subject where I worked hardest, and it’s nice to see a good result.”

Jack Grover from Cirencester brought his parents along to get his grades. He said: “They were both bundles of nerves – I was the calmest of all of us - but we were all ecstatic at the results. I felt I did really well, better than expected, and all the hard work paid off. I’ll be staying at Downfield to study Spanish, maths, French and geography, and hope to go on to university after A levels.”

Headteacher Dr Stuart Wilson said: “These are a fabulous set of results and I am delighted for the boys who have worked so hard and thoroughly deserve their success.

“With all the changes to GCSEs over the past few years our students continue to rise to the challenge; this year 78 per cent of grades were A*to B and the boys have pushed the A* grades even higher to 19 per cent.”

He added: “I would like to thank our staff who have worked tirelessly to support the boys in and out of lessons; they will be thrilled with the boys’ success. Well done to all!”