York Guides

James Reed (Yorkshire Post)

RACKING up 23 A grades between them, Madeleine Spence and Nick Murphy were among the star pupils helping dozens of Yorkshire schools to record GCSE results yesterday.

St Aidan's CE High School in Harrogate saw 95 per cent of students get at least five C grades, the Government's benchmark figure, a three per cent rise on last year.
Even a delay in the exam slips reaching the school yesterday morning was not enough to dampen spirits.
Madeleine's 11 A* grades included the top five marks in English and French. She said: "I'm really happy, I'm ecstatic. I really can't believe it. I was doubtful how a few had gone and I really didn't expect this top five.
"I purposely went out last night so I wouldn't be thinking about it but I got a call from the headteacher on my way into school today saying I had done well."
Nick, who scored 10 A* and two As, said: "I thought that I would do a lot worse than that so I'm very pleased with how it went. It all seems to have turned out quite nicely.
"They were quite tricky in the exam room then afterwards I thought I had done quite well but you can never be sure and I didn't want to pre-empt anything."
In addition to Madeleine and Nick, Jessica Monaghan received 12 A* grades after taking the exams a year earlier than normal.
St Aidan's was one of an increasing number of schools which saw large numbers of 15-year-olds taking some of their exams a year early. In all 26 took maths, and 17 gained A*.
Some students chose to take exams even earlier, 12-year-old Jonathan Schneider gaining an A* in German at Bradford Grammar and 14-year-old Charlotte Kelly an A* in law at Leeds Girls High School.
At Leeds Grammar, Ruolong Chen's mark in Information Commmunication Technology was so high that the AQA exam board named him their top candidate for all technology subjects, a total 295,680 entries.
Ruolong will travel to London to be presented with a silver medal later this year to recognise his achievement. The school had nine other students with top 10 marks
Roundhay High School, in Leeds, saw the proportion of children gaining at least five C grades rise by a massive 20 per cent to 73 per cent.
Cockburn High, in Beeston, also saw results rise by seven per cent while Pudsey Grangefield celebrated a 12 percentage point improvement
All Saints Catholic High School, in Sheffield, had five students who scored 12 A and A* grades, while 13 schools in the city saw pass rates improve on last year.
Schools in York saw the number of children hitting the Government benchmark climb by five per cent as eight schools improved their results.
Swinton Comprehensive School and Wingfield Comprehensive, in Rotherham, had 18 per cent improvements as the town saw its pass rate climb overall by almost five per cent.
It is also understood the five A* to C pass rate in Bradford could be as high as 45 per cent, five per cent up on 2004, Dixons City Technology College achieving 99 per cent.
Skipton Girls High School saw three pupils gaining top five marks in their English literature exams while a fourth student, who took her GCSE French exam two years early, was another high flier.
Harrogate Ladies College had six girls gaining the top five marks including three doing foreign languages.
Bradford Grammar boasted five pupils who scored top five marks in mathematics, statistics, physics, music, French and German.