STUDENTS at Ripon Grammar School, consistently North Yorkshire’s top performing state school, have achieved its best ever set of A-Level results.
Just short of 80 per cent – currently 79.5 per cent – of results were A*-B grades with over half at A* and A.
Among the top performers were three sets of twins and at least seven girls with places at Oxford and Cambridge Universities.
Boarding twins George and Harry Stratford – Ripon Grammar School is one of only a handful of state boarding schools – both achieved three A grades and will head to Durham University together to read finance, although at different colleges.
Louisa Chatterton is going to Cambridge University to read education with an A* and two As, while her sister Katharine will study philosophy and religion at Birmingham University.
Molly Gallagher is heading to York to read law after achieving an A*, A and C, while brother Lorcan went one better to gain A*, A and B grades.
Anna Rimmer, who achieved four A*s and a A* in the extended project qualification (EPQ), will join Louisa at Cambridge, to study economics.
The Oxford-bound girls are Maya Mellor who will read medicine with four A*s; Ella Durkin, with three A*s, to read chemistry; Alicia Hayden, two A*s and an A to study biological sciences; Katherine Dale, one A* and three As to read earth sciences; and Alice Peat, whose two A*s and an A secured her place to study French and Italian.
A large majority of students guaranteed their first choice at university with 37 students, or just over a quarter of the cohort, achieving straight A* or A grades. Every student who took an additional EPQ secured an A* or A grade for their independent research skills.
At the end of his first year in post, headmaster Jonathan Webb said: “I am delighted with these results and, more importantly, delighted to see so many smiles this morning as students found out that they had been accepted on courses at their chosen institutions.
“Behind the statistics there is always such a range of individual success stories. The students have worked supremely hard and deserve every congratulation.”