Staff and students at Stratton were euphoric after the school smashed its targets.

The school saw a nine per cent rise in the number of students achieving five A* to C grades, which was up to an impressive 73 per cent.

And the number managing the make the grades including core subjects English and Maths was up to 54 per cent.

Headteacher Neil Bramwell said: "We're looking at an outstanding set of results, we're extremely pleased. We've broken through the 70 per cent five A* to C, which has been our goal. It's a big step up and what we've been working towards. We've just smashed all our targets.

"The students have done fantastically well. We knew we had a talented group of students this year and we did have high hopes for them, but they have really pulled out the stops."

Chloe Barnes, who celebrated three A stars, the highest possible grade, five As and three Bs, said: "I'm relieved. I wasn't really sure, I didn't know what to expect - I was really shocked and had to read them again."

Talented Glynn Hughes, who was last year named male student of the year in the national School Sport Matters awards, also excelled in the academic field, with three A stars, eight As, a B and a C.

He was also named school sportsman of the year, and hopes to go on to take four A-levels with his sights set on Cambridge University in the future.

Glynn said: "I'm quite looking forward to A-levels now, because it's nice to get into topics I'm really interested in."

And bright spark Carrie Anderson was overjoyed with seven A stars, four As and one B.

She said: "I didn't think I'd actually got what it said I'd got."