STUDENTS are celebrating excellent A-level results.

Many students in north Kent contributed to the best-ever A-level results to date.

All but two schools - Leigh City Technology College and St John's Catholic School - beat the national average of 96.6 per cent passes at grades A to E.

There was a 100 per cent pass rate at Dartford Grammar School for Girls, Shepherds Lane, Dartford.

Headteacher Jane Wheatley was thrilled with the results, up from 99.7 per cent last year.

She said: "I am delighted with the outcome.

"The girls did really well, especially two of our students who took art and art textiles.

"They were in the top five in the country."

It was also a record year at Wilmington Grammar School for Boys, which had a 98 per cent pass rate.

This was three per cent up on last year's results.

The school, in Common Lane, Wilmington, was also celebrating its first pupil to be accepted to Oxford or Cambridge for six years.

Matthew Ryan, 18, achieved straight As in English, history and theatre studies.

The aspiring journalist will now read English literature at St Hugh's College, Oxford.

He said: "I am really happy and my parents are very proud.

"I can't wait to go to Oxford."

Leigh City Technology College, Green Street Green Road, Dartford, achieved a 90 per cent pass rate of students achieving A to E grades.

Principal Frank Green said: "These results show at A-level our students continue to achieve well above what was expected of them when they were younger."

Hextable School head of sixth form Fiona Wood says the results came as a pleasant surprise.

The school, in Egerton Avenue, Swanley, achieved a 98 per cent pass rate for the 180 pupils which took exams.

Mrs Wood said: "The whole school is over the moon.

"Everyone did really well thanks to the hard work from staff and students."

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