STUDENTS at Royal Wootton Bassett Academy arrived this morning to be greeted by a banner proclaiming ‘best ever results.’

Teachers welcomed their students with big smiles, delighted that all their hard work over the last year had paid off.

Across the year, 78 per cent of students walked away with A*-C grades with 91 per cent achieving the newly introduced target of expected progress between primary and GCSE in maths and English.

Headteacher George Croxford said: "We are absolutely delighted. After record -breaking A-level results out GCSEs are the best ever by a considerable margin.

“In these turbulent times, with constant Government interference and change it is a huge credit to our staff, students, parents and governors that we continue to excel.

“Our success is based on two amazing things – the students and the staff.”

Among the stand out performances was 16-year-old Jos-Elliot Jeapes who was delighted to open his results to find six A*s, three As and an A^ - a new grade that is one above even an A*.

A humble Jos said: “I wasn’t expecting that, they’re a lot better than I thought they would be.

“I’ve managed not to think about it until the past two days but then as it got closer I was pretty nervous.”

Jos excelled at maths, scoring his A^ in further maths, a trend which was reflected across the results.

Lindsay Gilder, 16, from West Swindon, also achieved an A^ with eight A* and another A to boot.

She put her results down to hard work and the efforts of all the staff at the school.

“We’ve got lots of great teachers here, in maths and other departments, they give us a lot of support,” she said.

“I thought I might have messed up a bit more than that but now I’ve got them I’m really pleased.”

Lindsay’s mum, Katherine Gilder, was on hand to get the first congratulatory hug in.

She said: “I’m so proud, probably more of the hard work than the grades.”

Many of the students spoke about how excited they were to be returning to the sixth form in the coming weeks, keen to build on their brilliant results and work towards their AS and A-level exams.

Head of year 11, Nichola Sutton, said: "I’m really pleased and very proud.

“It is great to see that the hard work by our students and teachers has been awarded with excellent grades."