FOLLOWING outstanding A level results last week, Ilkley Grammar School is now celebrating further successes in GCSEs.

Although top GCSE grades have dropped nationally for the fourth year in a row, Ilkley Grammar School has once again bucked this trend, by increasing the percentage of A* and A grades achieved by its students this year, including in English and maths.

The Cowpasture Road school says 14 per cent of all GCSE entries have been awarded A*s, (7 per cent above the national) - and more than a third (36 per cent) achieved either an A* or A, which is 15 per cent above national).

In total, 16 subjects improved their A* and A grade results this year, with 13 subjects improving at A* to C, showing further successes across all disciplines at the school.

Headteacher, Helen Williams, said: “We are once again delighted to be celebrating such fantastic results with our students and our staff who have put so much into achieving these results this year. This is of course the last year using the current headline measures, as from next year the new Progress and Attainment 8 scores will be used.

"It is therefore particularly pleasing to see that IGS has performed exceptionally well on ‘expected’ and ‘better than expected’ progress measures this year too, (where students’ prior ability is taken into account when comparing results to national outcomes), with 98% of our subject results outperforming national expectations for both measures, several by more than 20 per cent.”

Top performer at the school was Catherine Boyle with 10A*s and 1 A grade, followed by Rebecca Hall with 10A*s and Ella Glover, Millie Horn and Skye Lury with 9A*s and 1 A grade.