AT Grays Convent High school, Year 11s were celebrating another great success today (Thursday, 25 August) as the first year group since 2019 to sit their GCSE exams in person.

The school celebrated 81% of its students achieving a grade 4 in both English and maths, with 65% achieving the strong grade 5 pass in both English and maths. This is an increase of 11% at 4 and above and 21% at 5 and above since the last formal GCSEs in 2019.

Headteacher Penny Johnson, said: "It has been a wonderful celebration of our pupil's successes. They rose to the challenge of dealing with Covid - their resilience and their determination overcame this, and many other challenges that this brought. All of us at the school are thoroughly delighted and proud of every single student, sharing in their excitement about these results and the next stage of their adventure in education. As always it is privilege to work with these astonishing, inspiring and talented young people and to play a part in their lives."

Results in English are exceptional with 91% of students achieving 9-4 and 83% gaining 9-5 grades. This is followed up with great results in all of the core subjects: English, Mathematics, Science and R.E, all scoring over 80% 9-4 at GCSE. This impressive achievement continues with the vast majority of subjects achieving 80% or more 9-4 grades, including Media Studies at 98%; Spanish at 94% and Drama at 90%. Triple Science results remain at 100%. An average of 30% of girls achieved a 9-7 grade (A**-A).

A school statement says: "Behind the statistics are some amazing individual success stories, girls who have overcome all sorts of challenges, but notable student achievements and special credit goes to, among so many others:

Top student Anya Kabanetz with 8- 9's; 2- 8's and 1- 7; Arushi Aukeer with 7- 9's; 4-8's and 1- 7; and Reya Farrell with 5- 9's; 5- 8's and 1- 6, and Ife Ayeni, Headgirl, deserves our congratulations for achieving 11 GCSEs at 9-7 whilst also carrying out her other duties across the school."