THERE were smiles all round in Romsey as pupils across the area peeled back their white envelopes to reveal the results of months of hard work in the run up to their GCSEs.

Hampshire Collegiate School saw record breaking numbers get top marks in their GCSEs with 93 per cent scooping the benchmark of five A* to Cs including in English and maths.

Of them, 39 per cent earned A* or A grades - four per cent more than last year.

This comes just one week after the school celebrated its best ever A Level results, with 34 per cent getting top marks.

In Test Valley School, pupils and staff jumped for joy as 65 per cent of youngsters got five A*s to Cs including in English and Maths - seven per cent more than last year.

Students did particularly well in maths, with 81 per cent getting top A* to C grades and 25 per cent getting A*s and As.

In English, 74 per cent of pupils got A* to Cs - 10 per cent more than last year and 69 per cent got A* to Cs in science.

The Romsey School were also celebrating, despite seeing a drop of two per cent in the number of youngsters who got five A* to C grades including in English and maths, with 66 per cent making the grade.

More than a quarter of grades achieved at the school were A* and As.

Among those who did particularly well were 15 youngsters who achieved 10 A* and A grades.

Meanwhile, The Mountbatten School saw 81 per cent of its students achieve A* to Cs in science, 70 per cent in English and 67 per cent in maths.

The school declined to reveal the percentage of students who achieved five A* to Cs including in maths and English because there were some “outstanding queries” around the results and grade boundaries across all subjects had been raised.

Head of school, Christopher Cox said: “OFQUAL's warning about national turbulence and raised grade boundaries affecting all subjects have had some effect in some subjects making it almost impossible to compare year groups. Overall, however, this year group have surpassed expected levels of progress.”