Truro High School is celebrating another fantastic year of GCSE results with almost half of all passes at the top grades of A*/A or equivalent.

Among those celebrating at Truro High were seven friends who, between them, were awarded an astonishing 74 A*/As or equivalent.

Ezgi Aldemir and Isobel Hammock each achieved 11 A*s or equivalent, Eleanor Boyden and Rosie Smart-Knight earned 11 A*/As or equivalent, and Kitty Piccin-White, Emily Williams and Madeline Bartlett all collected ten A*/As or equivalent.

The good news was spread across the curriculum with straight A*s in Latin, taken by almost a quarter of the year group, and all A*/As in textiles helping to contribute to a 100 per cent pass rate at five A* to C and an overall pass rate of 94 per cent.

A*s and As also accounted for at least half of all passes in art, French, maths, history, theatre studies, German, Spanish and religious studies.

Truro High has achieved the best GCSE results in Cornwall for the last two years and headmaster, Dr Glenn Moodie, said this year’s cohort had also acquitted themselves with honour.

“This is the first year that our pupils have taken the Government’s new examinations and I am delighted by the number who have achieved the very top level Grade 9 which surpasses the A* grading that it replaces,” he said.

“We have become used to reporting our excellent results in STEM and the creative arts but this year I would also draw attention to our performance in modern languages. The ability to communicate in other languages will be increasingly crucial over the coming years as Britain finds its feet outside the EU and I am extremely pleased to see the very high percentage of top grades achieved in modern languages by our girls.”

Shaking as she opened her envelope at school was budding doctor Ezgi Aldemir who was awarded the very top grade in all 11 of her subjects and will shortly start her A levels at the school. She said: “I’m ecstatic. I wasn’t expecting this at all and it means that I might be able to go to Oxford in the future to study medicine. I’m so excited I can barely speak.”

Getting a taste of what’s to come were year nine's Lowena Olver and year ten's Maddie McLeod, who both attend Truro High’s after-school astronomy club. Their enthusiasm for the topic was kindled by club leader Brian Sheen, director of the Roseland Observatory, who encouraged the girls to sit an astronomy GCSE. They achieved A and B grades in their exams.