Schools across Oswestry have been celebrating the success of their pupils who have found out their GCSE results this morning.

Tens of thousands of students across the country were up early discovering their grades after a gruelling schedule of exams at the start of the summer.

They will now be deciding where to go next, whether that be colleges and sixth forms, or apprenticeship schemes.

For the first time, results were given out under a new format, with grades portrayed as numbers nine to one rather than A* to G.

Alison Pearson, headteacher at Marches School believes the new system is a good way of helping universities in the future identify who are the highest achievers.

She said: “It roughly works out that a low scoring level four in classed as a C and a low scoring level seven is an A – but the new and old systems aren’t supposed to be comparable.

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“It means that those getting a level eight or nine are getting A* grades, or essentially, A** if you’re getting nines.

“What they’re trying to do is to spread out the top grades to help universities and colleges to identify who are the very top achievers among all the pupils with high marks.

“It’s designed to be tougher and with no resits anymore it makes students very dependant on performing well in end of year exams.”

Many schools across the town have performed well with a high number of students hitting the top end of the grade spectrum.

Moreton Hall School’s students set a record for recent years with 60% of students achieving A* and A equivalents under the new system, with 98% achieving the equivalent of five A*- C grades.

Principal Jonathan Forster said: “I think the exams have gotten harder, but I think at the same time exam boards have been advised to lower grade boundaries.

“98% A* - C grades are just phenomenal, it’s really the best we’ve had.

“I’m delighted because it shows if people really work hard they can achieve exceptional results – so hats off to the girls and the teachers here and hats off to those who have worked hard all across our area.”