BRENTWOOD School is celebrating after its students achieved their highest ever percentage of A* grades or equivalent in this year’s A Levels, despite a national drop.

Headmaster Ian Davies said he was pleased with the results which saw 11 students taking up offers at either Oxford or Cambridge, and another five being awarded places to study medicine.

This follows last year’s success when eight students achieved Oxbridge places.

Another 100% pass rate for all Upper Sixth Form A Level students resulted in nearly half of all exam entries being awarded an ‘A*’ or ‘A’ grade. This performance follows on from the publication of International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme results earlier in the summer, which saw students achieve a highly creditable average of 35 points – which is equivalent to ’A’, ‘A’, ‘B’ at A Level.

A quarter of all students achieved solely ‘A*’ and ‘A’ grades, including Gee-Joy Cheuk who achieved four ‘A*’s and an ‘A’ and he has been awarded a place to read Chemical Engineering at Christ’s College, Cambridge.

Other pupils achieving four A*s include Robert Eady who’ll be going to read Computation at Queen’s College, Cambridge; Leslie Stowe who will take up a place to read Engineering at Robinson College, Cambridge, and George Lewis who will read Physics at New College, Oxford.

Leslie, 18, who opened her envelope to reveal ‘A*’s in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Further Mathematics, said she was ecstatic because the results were even better than she had expected.

Leslie, whose dream is to join a Formula One team as a junior designer or race engineer, said: “I hope I have done the Maths Department proud.”

Josie Paton, who achieved three ‘A*s’ in Further Mathematics, Mathematics and Physics, and an ‘A’ in Chemistry, will also read Physics at Oxford. The results were her ‘best estimate’ and she was thrilled with her scores.

Her mum, Sylvia, said: “This is wonderful. I am so proud. I knew she could do it.”

The vast majority of students have been awarded places at leading universities such as UCL, Bristol, Imperial, Edinburgh, Durham and Warwick in the UK, and a number will take up places at prestigious universities overseas.

Within the IBDP there were also many outstanding performances. Among these was Louise Nash who scored a world class 43 points. This places her in the top one per cent of students worldwide according to the official IB website and is more than enough to secure her first choice place to read Biochemistry at University College London. Mr Davies said all the examination results were testament to the hard work of students and the commitment of teachers.

The results saw over 75 percent of all entries achieve A*/B grade at A Level (or the equivalent within the IBDP) whilst 94 percent of entries resulted in the award of an A*-C.