THERE was great delight at Farnborough Hill as students girls opened their A-level results.

Nearly half of all the results were at A* or A grades, with 90 per cent at the covetable A* to C, which secures places at the top universities.

Top performers included Ellie House with three A*s securing her place to read history at St Catherine’s College, Cambridge; with A* A* A Claudia Head studying medicine at Southampton, Souad Hemchaoui studying accounting with finance at Bath, Olivia Pockett reading theatre and performance studies at Bristol and Esther Teo reading neuroscience at University College London.

After opening her results Ellie said: “I feel incredibly excited for the future and proud of myself – but mostly surprised. I am elated and so happy to have made my teachers and myself proud.”

Charlie Dannatt, who will be reading biomedical sciences at St John’s College Oxford, added: “The main emotion is relief as I’ve been nervous about today since sitting the exams as they were so challenging.”

There were many other personal triumphs with girls achieving higher grades than they had dared to hope for, a tribute to their hard work and the teaching at Farnborough Hill.

Farnborough Hill girls have been encouraged to consider a wide variety of courses, with some of the other subjects being archaeology, chemistry, nursing and politics.

The school was delighted to see a 100 per cent pass rate once again, with 46 per cent of the grades at A*/A and 90 per cent at A* to C. The percentage of A* grades also stayed well above the national average.

Headteacher Alexandra Neil said: “These girls have a strong work ethic and are dedicated to their studies.

“This bodes well for university and future careers. Clearly across the board they have been inspired and encouraged by their teachers to follow their dreams, from medicine to mathematics and physics to politics the girls are making the most of their gifts and talents. I wish them every success and happiness in the future.”