It's A-Level Results Day Here In Sittingbourne

Hundreds of sixth form students from Borden Grammar, Fulston Manor, Highsted, Sittingbourne Community College and Westlands picked up their A Level results earlier today.

Nationally A-level students have been awarded the highest proportion of As and A*s since 2012, amid changes toughening the exams in England. Some 26.4% of exams have been awarded these top grades this year - but the proportion gaining A* to C dropped slightly to 78.4% from 79% last year.

England's exams regulator has said the results show a steady national picture at a time of significant change. Overall, 97.6% of A-level entries were awarded A* to E grades.

Examiners dismissed the rise in top grades as "extremely marginal", while Ofqual has underlined that results have remained steady - in 2012, for example, 26.6% of exams were awarded As and A*s and in 2017, 26.3% achieved these top grades.

Local results were:-

⦿ BORDEN GRAMMAR: It was another year of positive results for the school with Year 13 students achieving some of the best grades the school has ever had.

A number of students achieved three or more A* and A grades among their results. They were Dominic Byrne, Joshua Diddams, Matthew Doria, Jack Edwards, Luke Friend, Scott Hazell, Jonathan Idowu, Luke Newcombe, Samuel O'Brien, Thomas Saunders and Connor Wade.

Ben Yardley was the best performer with an A*, 2 x As and a B and he's due to take up a place at Worcester College at Oxford University to study History.

⦿ FULSTON MANOR: More than 60 students have been offered places at universities. Among the top performers were Lauren Rogers (3 x A's and 1 C) and is off to study Politics at Newcastle University, Danielle Cross (1 x A, 2 x B's and a D) who plans to do Anthropology at Durham University and Rhiannon England (2 x B's and a D) who will be doing Astronomy, Space Science and Astrophysics at the University of Kent.

⦿ HIGHSTED GRAMMAR: Tehti Patel got an A* in Geography, her extended project and 3 x A's in Biology, Chemistry and French and plans to go to King's College to study Medicine. Maria Doria, Anna Kent and Sian Lo all achieved 3 x A*'s and 1 x A each.

⦿ SITTINGBOURNE COMMUNITY COLLEGE and ⦿ WESTLANDS SECONDARY: Students at Westlands School and Sittingbourne Community College now study under the joint banner of Swale Sixth Form across three sites. Out of the 108 exam takers, 99 of them achieved at least one A* to C. Their top performer, Michael Warman, achieved 3 x A*'s and a C in Business, Finance and History in the extended project. He will be off to the University of Kent where he will be studying Politics And International Relations. Fellow student Max Pearn got a double A* award in Engineering, along with Maths and Physics and will be taking up employment as a Robotics Technician at an online food retailer.