STUDENTS at The King's School Chester were on cloud 9 with a significant rise in the number of top-grade GCSE achievements.

Nearly half of the grades achieved were 9/8, with the amount of grade 9s increasing by nearly 10 per cent from 2018.

An incredible 26 per cent of results were grade 9 overall, with 48 per cent at 9/8 and 84 per cent from 9/6.

Overall, 40 per cent of students achieved seven or more 9/8 grades (including A/A* further maths), with 14 students celebrating 10 or more grade 9/8s, including five students with straight grade 9s.

Ten subjects recorded more than 50 per cent of grades at 9/8, including history with 70 per cent grade 9/8 (50 per cent grade 9). More than 60 per cent of grades in all three sciences at were at 9/8.

Mansi Gupta (10 grade 9s and A* in further maths), Mark Turner (10 grade 9s and A* distinction in further maths), Tilly Irvine (10 grade 9s), Riyaan Yesudian (10 grade 9s and A* distinction in further maths) and Emma Henry (10 grade 9s) are among only 837 students nationally to achieve all grade 9/A*.

Elsewhere, there were a number of individual successes, with the following students achieving seven or more grade 9s:

Oliver Whittlestone, Thomas Hughes, Lucy Plunkett, Daniel Rajapandian, Daniel Roberts, Anabelle Temple, Luke Mulholland, Lauren Barnes, Chloe Horton, Louis Corrigan, Madeline Ellis and Freya Walsh.

Headteacher George Hartley said: “We are delighted with these superb results, particularly at the top end where there have been some truly stunning performances.

“I congratulate our hard-working students across the whole ability range, however, and wish them all the very best for their sixth form where I have no doubt they will continue to develop and flourish as confident, happy and busy individuals.

“Exam performance is still really important but future employers are increasingly looking for many complimentary attributes such as resilience, flexibility and creativity and the sixth form is a great place to fine-tune these essential qualities for work and life."