SHRIEKS of joy and an overwhelming sense of relief radiated from South Bromsgrove High School as town teenagers collected their GCSE results.

Bucking the national trend, the Charford Road school achieved its best-ever results last Thursday. Ninety-eight per cent of pupils passed their exams and an impressive 66 per cent gained the coveted five grades A* to C.

Across the country the overall pass rate for the exams was down on last year. The proportion of pupils achieving A* to G grades fell from 97.9 per cent to 97.6 per cent.

Headteacher Phil McTague was thrilled and delighted with the results and felt they were rich reward for the huge effort put in by both staff and students.

"This is a school that is really going places, with excellent results at all levels, superb resources, recent massive financial input, high quality and dedicated staff, and a passion for excellence," he said.

The Advertiser/Messenger spoke to a handful of jubilant students as they collected their results, many claiming they had exceeded their own expectations.

Aston Fields pupil Rachel Moss was over the moon after collecting three A*s, six As and one B. She was looking forward to studying English, history, French and media at the school's sixth form centre.

Sixteen-year-old James Willetts said: "I have done much better than I expected." He picked up two A*s, fours As and four Bs.

Cream of the crop was Alexander Morris who achieved nine A*s and one A, while Richard German, Owain Norman, Ben Thomas and Fiona Wellington were just some of the other top achievers.

On the other side of town, at Waseley Hills High School in Rubery, teenagers were also celebrating excellent grades, equalling last year's best-ever results.

A number of pupils collected high numbers of A* grades, while all teenagers left the school with at least one pass.

Headteacher David Thurbon said: "I am delighted with the results this year, which once again reflect the hard work and effort of both students and staff. I would also acknowledge the invaluable support of the parents."

Following an extremely tough year, after being placed under Special Measures, staff at North Bromsgrove High School were pleased with the grades attained.

Despite the results being down on last year, with 44 per cent of teenagers gaining at least five A* to C grades, headteacher Clive Pemberton said they look forward to forging ahead with improvements next year.

"We have had an extremely difficult year and pupils have still done extremely well," he said.

Top pupil at the School Drive school was Robyn Edwards who gained seven A*s and three As.

And the celebration continued at Bromsgrove School with three pupils gaining grades A* in all ten subjects - the maximum number of GCSEs a student can sit at the Worcester Road school.

Headteacher Tim Taylor said: "Our pupils have continued our tradition of excellent academic performance. For several years our work ethos in the sixth form has been of the highest order and now we have established a positive work ethos in our GCSE years."