STUDENTS at Felsted have shown they are a cut above the rest by registering the school’s best ever GCSE past rate.

Overall, 97 per cent of the boarding school teens managed to score a C grade or above with 40 per cent of pupils taking home A*’s and A’s.

Every student exceeded the state school benchmark of five grade C passes as a minimum and all students gained entry to Felsted Sixth Form on the basis of their results.

Headmaster Dr Michael Walker said: “Our students have worked very hard and accepted the challenge of aiming high as well as taking advantage of such a rich range of extra-curricular opportunities in sport, music, the arts and other areas.

“They deserve genuine congratulations for these excellent results. It is a team effort and they and the teaching staff have worked collaboratively and to great effect over the last year in particular.

“We are very proud of their performance.”

An impressive twenty students gained eight or more A* and A grades. They were:

Danielle Robertson (9 A*, 2 A)

James Butterworth (9 A*, 1 A, 1 B)

Elizabeth Holmes (7 A*, 3 A)

Phoebe Hunter (7 A*, 4 A)

Felicity Doe (5 A*, 6 A)

Katie Sunnucks (4 A*, 7 A)

Alice Short (4 A*, 6 A)

Imogen Hargreaves (4 A*, 6 A)

Amy Wills (4 A*, 5 A, 1 B)

Blake Harland (3 A*, 6 A, 1 B)

Charlotte Crocker (2 A*, 7 A, 1 B)

Phoebe Hunter, 17, from Great Bardfield, gained seven A*’s and four A’s was delighted with her results after having a tough year.

Her father suffered an accident whilst travelling to work in London and is still recovering from serious brain injuries.

“I did so much better than predicted,” she said. “My goal is to study medicine at university.”

Phoebe will be studying chemistry, biology, maths and psychology A-Levels at Felsted from September.

Felicity Doe, 16, from Woodham Mortimer, also did well gaining five A*s and six A’s was also pleased to have gained better than predicted grades.

A keen athlete, she is going on to study A-Levels in History, Spanish, Italian and Business Studies.

Siblings Tom and Kirsten Males, from Felsted, are also celebrating.

Kirsten,18, gained two A*’s and one A-grade at A-Level last week and Tom, 16, achieved one A*, eight A’s and two B’s at GCSE level.

Tom will be studying A-Levels in maths, English, economics and philosophy in September.

Kirsten will be completing a one year art foundation course at Colchester before heading to Nottingham University to read history of art.