Pupils at the John Henry Newman Catholic School in Stevenage were celebrating their GCSE results today as almost 30 percent of grades were at A* or A.

The Comet: John Henry Newman School students with their GCSE results.John Henry Newman School students with their GCSE results. (Image: Archant)

Overall, 77 per cent of students gained a C or above in English and maths.

Learning co-ordinators Joe Hewitson and Sarah Ince said: “We are so proud of our pupils, who worked tremendously hard to achieve these results. At the same time, we would like to pay tribute to the support given by our fantastic parents and our hardworking staff, without whom these results would not be possible.”

Mr Hewitson added: “We are especially pleased with our English results, with 90 per cent of the Year 11 pupils achieving a C or better in this subject.”

Outstanding individual results included Eve Clarke with 11 A*s, Clare De’Ath with 10 As*, and Toby Davies, Madeleine Letowska, Ciaran Leung, Joseph Reynolds and Thomas Sharp, who all achieved eight A*s. Almost 40 pupils achieved eight or more A*s and As.

The Comet: Student Emily Burton reading her results with Emily Noon from the John Henry Newman School.Student Emily Burton reading her results with Emily Noon from the John Henry Newman School. (Image: Archant)

Assistant headteacher Jo Thornton also paid tribute to the pupils who have made outstanding progress, under the Progress 8 measure.

She said: “This is a new government measure, and many of our pupils have achieved, on average, well over one grade higher in each GCSE than government targets, including Sinead Comiskey, Emily Burton, Miret Habib, Ethan Day, Armand Marsh, Brendan Ng, and Beth Ward, to name just a few.

“Their hard work has yielded astonishing results, and we congratulate them wholeheartedly.’