STUDENTS in the Forest and Wye Valley finally saw the fruits of their years of hard work in unprecedented circumstances when they discovered their GCSE results this week.

Year 11 pupils from all of the area’s schools celebrated their successes with  friends and family after learning their grades yesterday (Thursday, August 25).

Headteachers were unanimous in praising the commitment that pupils and staff have shown in the last two years following what has been an especially turbulent time for all students, not least those studying for their GCSEs.

Staff at Chepstow School said they were “delighted” by their students’ performances, some of which were “significantly above” national averages in many subjects.

Some 90 per cent of pupils achieved more than five qualifications at grades A*-C and almost half achieved five qualifications at A*-A.

One pupil, Anna Langdon, achieved an “exceptional” 16 A*s, one A and one B, in addition to an A grade in AS Spanish.

Other individual successes included Harrison Coppen, Sorcha Greenhalgh, William Higgins, Megan Pantry and Harrison Postans, who all achieved at least 14 A*-As.

Another success story at Chepstow was Noah Herniman, who was last year diagnosed with an inoperable tumour at the core of his brain.

Despite undergoing a series of arduous treatments, the “inspirational” young man managed to complete five GCSE examinations, achieving one B and four C grades.

Chepstow’s acting headteacher Kelly Bowd said: “Our young people should be exceptionally proud of these examination results.

“This success is record breaking in many areas and a just reward for the commitment the pupils and staff have demonstrated in exceptional circumstances.

“These results equip our young people to move on to the next phase of their lives and we are delighted to be working with them in our sixth form provision.”

It was a similar story at Five Acres High School near Coleford with students “outperforming” against national averages across all abilities and needs, putting them inside “the top five per cent or better” of schools nationally.

The school’s top performer was Ben Thomas, with seven Grade 9s, or A*s, amongst his “impressive haul”, and more students than ever achieved an A*-C in both Maths and English.

Headteacher at Five Acres High, Simon Phelps, said: “Once again our students have proven themselves to be determined and ambitious.

“We are excited that their efforts have paid off and that they now have so many choices open to them going forwards.

“Our recent Good OFSTED grading, our World Class Schools Quality Mark and another amazing set of results show that local education is a match for anything within the country.

“Our teaching staff deserve so much credit for their dedication and sacrifice in helping students to achieve in this way.

“I would also like to thank parents and carers who continue to support their children by working in partnership with the school.

“We wish all of our students well in their chosen pathways post 16”.

Headteacher of The Dean Academy in Lydney, Richard Brand, praised the “resilience” of his students in overcoming significant challenges, with more of them achieving top grades than ever before.

“We are incredibly proud of how hard this cohort of Year 11 students have worked and this is reflected in an excellent set of GCSE results”, Mr Brand said.

“We’re thrilled to see more students attaining top grades than ever before. 

“The resilience, determination and maturity that these young people have shown over the past few difficult years has been nothing short of remarkable.

“In spite of all the challenges of recent times, it has been a positive year for The Dean Academy and we are delighted that these GCSE results reinforce what was recognised in the Ofsted “Good” rating earlier in the year.”

He added: “In agreement with colleagues in other schools locally and nationally, we believe it is not appropriate to compare these results to previous years due to the nature of the grading arrangements used by the exam boards in this first post pandemic set of examination results.

“It is also not appropriate to compare the results of one school to another due to the uneven impact of Covid related staff and student absences in different schools.

“We would like to thank all members of our school community, none more so than our dedicated and hard working staff, for their support and we look forward to hearing about this cohort and their successes as they go on to further study.”