TEARS of joy and sadness were shed this morning as thousands of students across Basingstoke and Deane received their GCSE results.

This is the first year the new Government a new grading system has been introduced, where courses will be graded from 9 to 1.

Despite the tougher exam structure, particularly in English and maths, year 11 students in Basingstoke and Deane thrived getting a great set of results across the board.

For Fort Hill Community School, there was a bitter sweet feel as this will be the last group of students to get their results from the Kenilworth Road school, which managed a 47 per cent pass rate of A* / 9 – C/4.

With the new grading system making it difficult to give accurate like-for-like comparisons, however, schools were celebrating high score.

One of which, Sherfield school enjoyed a record pass rate, with 92 per cent of candidates achieving at least five A* - C or equivalent including maths and English, with a 93 per cent overall pass rate.

Elsewhere The Hurst Community College were celebrating record results in maths, with 83 per cent of pupils attaining a grade four or higher, with 75 per cent achieving the same in English.

The Costello School also saw a significant improvement in its GCSE results with students achieving 66 per cent of five A* - C or equivalent, including maths and English, with 74 per cent getting A* - C.

The Vyne Community School achieved similar results with 64 per cent getting an A* – C or equivalent including English and Maths.

Some schools have found the new system is difficult to compare to last year results, but Everest Community Academy managed to achieve 40 per cent A* - C pass rate, a slight improvement on what they achieved last year.

There was a strong showing at Hook’s Lord Wandsworth College with over half of all GCSE grades being awarded at A* or A (53 per cent) and 80 per cent of all grades at A*-B, equalling the school’s best GCSE performance in many years and against the backdrop of more challenging exams and reports of less certainty in the new grading system.

Testbourne Community School were also enjoying fantastic results with 81 per cent of pupils achieving grade 4 and above, including English and maths.

With the new grading system it was meant the exams where meant to be harder in English and maths, but at Cranbourne Business and Enterprise College three per cent of students achieved a grade 9 in these subjects.

Brighton Hill Community school students achieved 63 per cent of five GCSEs at A* - C or equivalent including maths and English, with Aldworth School almost matching this figure with 62 per cent.

Students at Bishop Challoner Catholic Secondary School were not fazed by the new tougher tests, with 10 per cent getting grades 8 and 9 in maths and English.

For full coverage of the GCSE results across Basingstoke and Deane see next week’s Gazette.