THE WAIT is now over for Thornbury’s most senior students as they finally received their A-level results at Castle School.

The hard work certainly paid off for many students as the number of top grades achieved at the school increased from last year.

There were star performances from Gianlucca Cerullo and Luke Williams who carried on from their GCSE successes of 11 A* grades by each receiving a clean sweep of A*s at A-level.

Gianlucca will now go on to study zoology at Sheffield University and Luke will start his degree of physics and astrophysics at Exeter University this year.

Charlie Collin, who lives in Oldbury on Severn, has spent the summer on a placement working at Renishaw hopes to move in to the engineering field by starting his degree in electromechanical engineering next month.

He said: “I was up this morning to try and get my grades online. I had to keep refreshing the page to get them but I got good enough grades for what I needed

Amy Smith, from Thornbury, will go on to study at Oxford Brookes next year after achieving the grades she needed.

She said: “It was really good. I got what I needed to go to Oxford Brookes next year. I looked up my results this morning and I was so excited when I saw them.

Her friend, Josh Carter, said that he was happy to finally receive his results: “I’m really pleased with my results; I was really nervous and shaky before I got them but now I feel great, I’m really happy.”

Sixty per cent of all A-levels sat by students at the school achieved a grade of A* to B, a higher proportion than last year despite having a higher number of students.

Twenty four pupils achieved at least three A grades or equivalent despite fears that the removal of January exams would disadvantage some students.

Headteacher, Peter Smart commented: “I am thrilled with these superb results once again, which are a tribute to the hard work of our excellent students and the quality of teaching they receive in our school.

“With nearly 200 students completing their A-levels in our sixth form this year, even more than last year, the maintenance of such high standards is not just a ‘flash in the pan’.

“We continue to see many students going off to begin exciting degree courses at university, as well as increasing numbers going into high-status apprenticeships.”