AFTER weeks of waiting, GCSE pupils around the county anxiously opened their exam result envelopes on Thursday, August 25.

At Queens' School, Bushey, a crowd nervously gathered outside the south hall just before 11am.

When the doors opened and the results were received, the room was filled with smiling faces and cheers of joy.

Soon afterwards, out came the mobile phones to share the news with parents.

Hannah Wilkinson said she was nervous about getting her results, but was pleased with the outcome.

She said: "I have done better than I hoped. I got two As, Bs and then some Cs and Ds, so I have done enough to get into the sixth form."

Her friends, Hayley Duce and Hannah Willis, also passed all their exams and will be joining her at the sixth form.

Meanwhile, Siobhan Tracey received three Bs, three Cs and two Ds and will be going onto college.

Five grades at A to C level were achieved by 75 per cent of pupils at Queens and six achieved straight A* and A grades.

One pupil, Sam Palmer, was specially commended for his religious studies paper.

He got an A* and his final mark was so high that it came within the top ten per cent in the country.

Headteacher Terry James said: "We are very pleased. There have been lots of happy, smiling faces in the hall today.

"I imagine they will all be out celebrating this evening and they deserve to. They have all worked really hard, as have the staff."

The results matched the school's previous best and last week's A-level results were its highest ever.

Mr James said this shows how the school is going from strength to strength.

He said: "The pass rates for GCSEs was 50 per cent five years ago. Now it is more than 70 per cent. Our A levels were the best ever this year, with the vast majority getting into their first choice of university. Three have been accepted at Oxford."

Meanwhile, pupils at Merchant Taylors' School in Northwood were also celebrating exam success.

Two students, Puneet Dhaliwal and Chrishan Raja, were each in the UK's top ten in three subjects.

The school also had UK top ten candidates in chemistry and physics and top five candidates in German.

Many of the students who collected their GCSE results yesterday will be staying on at the sixth form, while others will stay in further education.

Less than ten per cent will start full time jobs.

Nationally, there was a record GCSE pass rate, with the biggest rise in 13 years of students obtaining at least one grade C.