Halstead secondary school, The Ramsey Academy, congratulated its students as they received their GCSE results this morning.

The school aims to ‘achieve excellence together’ with its students - which is mirrored in this year’s year 11 results.

Most progressed student, Joshua Clemence, 16, felt ‘nervous’ to pick up his GCSE certificates this morning,

“I really struggled in year 10 doing work at home, but I had friends to fall back on which I really valued,

“Building up to the exams I started to feel a bit more prepared,” Joshua said.

Joshua was proud to earn a grade 9 in his favourite subject, Biology, as well as a grade 8 in food technology, and a grade 6 in maths.

“When I opened the results, I was surprised at how low my expectations were, but I ended up getting some high grades,

“It made me see that if I enjoy something I can do well with it,” he said.

Although Joshua is undecided on where he will study next, he hopes to go on to become an English teacher.

Students at the school’s humanities department, including religious education and languages, received GCSE grades ‘far higher than the national figure’ – with 1 in 3 earning a grade 7 – 9.

Head of the department, Alice Perrins, was pleased with the ‘outstanding’ results.

“Humanities had an outstanding set of results with 1 in 3 getting a grade 7 – 9 which Is far higher than the national figure,

“9 of those students received grade 9,

“I’m really pleased that all their hard work, attendance and revision sessions have paid off,

“I’m really proud of all their achievements – it’s the strongest set of results we’ve ever had,” She said.

Sixteen-year-old, Freya Davey was ‘proud’ to follow in her mother’s footsteps and received high grades.

“My mum came to Ramsey, the school’s been really good – especially throughout the GCSEs, It’s been quite stable with constant teachers,” Freya said.

In her most revised subject, Science, Freya received grade 9s in biology, chemistry and physics, and will be starting Colchester Sixth form to study the topic further later this year.

“I’m quite proud of myself and I’m really looking forward to what sixth form will hold,” She said.

Fellow student, Cian Moore, 16, received grade 9 in 6 different subjects, as well as grade 8s in geography and English literature and a grade 7 in Spanish.

“It felt really good to see my results, I was quite nervous about how it would go but I’m actually really proud of myself,” Cian said.

Head teacher of Ramsey, Charlotte Sterling, was proud of the students and grateful to school staff.

“Congratulations to all of our students, they should be very proud of what they have achieved,

“I would like to thank all of our lovely staff who have gone above and beyond to support our students in achieving an excellent set of results,

“Thank you to all the parents who have supported the school throughout their child’s time here,

“I wish all of our students the best in the next step of their educational journey.” She said.