STUDENTS and staff at Malmesbury School are celebrating the best ever A-Level results in the school’s history.

Headteacher Tim Gilson has praised all of this year’s students and staff for the hard work they have put in this year.

“It’s a remarkable set of results for us, it’s the best in the school’s history and at the top end it’s superb.

“We’ve got five students going off to Oxford or Cambridge, which is a very large number, plus another student going off to do medicine.

“It’s a really good day, these A-Levels are the reformed A-Levels and there were lots of challenges and concerns, lots of staff feeling that they weren’t sure how things would be.

“However we’re fortunate here that we’ve got incredibly dedicated staff who work so professionally to get it right for our students to support them, and our students work hard too.

“It’s easy to focus on the students getting four A*s but at every level there are students who have achieved beyond expectations and are going off to do great things, whether at university or at work.

“This year group worked really hard all the way through school and they’ve really got the grades they deserve.”

Languages student William Holder, 18, was thrilled with the two A*s and one A that he received in French, German and English Literature.

The remarkable grades mean he can now take up a place studying French and Russian at the University of Oxford.

The modest student said, “I didn’t get much sleep last night but I was happy with what I got.

“I’m very satisfied, it was a real relief.

“I was just attracted to Russian, it’s fresh and challenging, something to really get your teeth into and I wanted something different as well.”

William’s mother Rebecca was proud of her son, she said: “We’re just delighted and we’re so pleased for him.

“He’s worked so hard and he really wanted to go to Oxford and I’m just absolutely thrilled that he got in.

Tim Gilson added: “William did really well, he’s one of the five going off to Oxbridge.

“He’s a very thoughtful, very intelligent and hardworking young man.

 “Oxford will suit him down to the ground and Russian is a really interesting course to study.

“Languages are incredibly important and sadly numbers of student studying languages are declining and we’re working really hard here to keep those numbers up, languages are a core part of what we offer.