ST NICHOLAS Catholic High School has said provisional results show the school has achieved its best ever results.

The school is yet again celebrating an absolutely superb set of A Level results, with provisional results showing that the school has achieved its best ever results at A Level with an average points score per entry of 227.1.

In spite of a fall at national level of the top grades for the second year running, the percentage of grades at the highest levels is also most impressive with 13.5 per cent being A* and 32 per cent being A*/A (the national figure is 26.3 per cent for A*/A).

In total, 62.1 per cent of all grades were at A*/B level, 86.9 per cent at A*/C level, 97.5 per cent at A*/D level and 99.4 per cent at A*/E level.

There were some notable individual performances with 20 students (19 per cent) gaining three or more A*/As.

The students who applied for Oxbridge have been particularly successful with all gaining their places; Anna Carruthers (1 A*, 2 As & 1 B) and Heather McNeill (4 A*s) will read History and Natural Sciences respectively at Cambridge while Lucy Roberts (3 A*s) will read Chemistry at Oxford while Oliver Rogers (2 A*s and 1 A) will read Engineering.

Similarly, the four students who were offered places to study Medicine have all gained those places. Harry Fitzpatrick (3 A*s) and Simeon Head (1 A* & 2 As) are going to Cardiff University; Annabel Rogers (3 A*s and 1 A) is going to Bristol University while Emily Rosa will study Medicine at Birmingham University.

On top of this, a large number of others are going to attend other top universities in the country including Durham, Warwick and other Russell Group universities.

This reflects the fact that 30 students (28 per cent) gained at least 2 A*/As and a grade B.

This great success is shared by students of all abilities in that 102 of them (95.3 per cent) gained at least three A Levels at grades A*/E and 99.1 per cent gained at least two A Level at grades A*/E.

Kieran Kelly, headteacher, said: "These fantastic results are the consequence of the very hard work of the students themselves who have not only engaged fully in their academic work but have also taken on a huge number of extra-curricular activities from an expedition to Borneo to supporting Year 7 students in their learning.

"At the same time they have made the most of the first class support they receive from their teachers at the school who work tirelessly to help students make the most of their potential.

"I am absolutely delighted with what has been achieved and I am very proud that St. Nicholas Catholic High School continues to demonstrate exactly why it is such an outstanding school."