AYLESTONE Business and Enterprise College saw 97 per cent of its students come away with five A* to C GCSE grades.

The Hereford school also noted a significant rise in the number of students with top passes in English and maths.

Headteacher Sue Woodrow said: “Frustratingly, our pupils were particularly affected and caught up in the national controversy over the marking of English papers last year.

“So we are extremely pleased that the measures we put in place to support pupils in achieving the best grade they were capable of have clearly paid off this year.”

The key to the successes this year, Ms Woodrow added, was in the personal support and interventions Aylestone provided to help pupils achieve.

She said: “We have a strong culture here at Aylestone of identifying which areas a pupil needs support in, discussing this with them and then providing a solution.

“This requires commitment and perseverance from everyone and is further evidence of the dedication and expertise of the teaching staff here.”

As a Business and Enterprise College, staff were particularly pleased that 96 per cent of pupils gained three IT qualifications at A*-C, while 86 per cent gained A*-C in Business Studies and nearly 80 per cent of pupils gained two science GCSEs at A*-C.

Impressively, nearly 10 per cent of Year 11 students gained eight or more A*-A grades.

Joe Payne, with 14 GCSEs at A*-C, was one Aylestone student celebrating.

He said: “The difference for me is how motivated I became to do well. We did loads of mocks and the school put on a special programme of support in English and Maths and it worked.

"I love English now and I’m doing English Language at Sixth Form. I never thought I’d be saying that.”

Ms Woodrow added: “We are confident that we can build on these successes year-on-year even though the government has made it clear that exams will be deliberately tougher, as they were this year.”