Remarkable GCSE results from students in Taunton

Students across Taunton received their GCSE results yesterday (Thursday August 23) and with outstanding results there was a lot of celebrating to be done.

King's College in Taunton are top of the tables as an outstanding 100% of their students received A* - C results across all subjects and 50% of all examinations taken by King's College students attracted A* and A grades.

Pupils Chantal Fifield and Jack Holmes achieved A*s in all their subjects.

Headmaster Richard Briggs said: "Our students' achievements are all the more impressive because they sustained their many other commitments at King's and continued to play a full part in sport, music and drama right to the end of the term.

"They have shown that it is possible to succeed in exams and to develop at the same time as well-rounded and interesting human beings."

Students at King's are clearly gifted in maths and music as well, as a quarter of students gained A*s in maths and a massive 82% received A*and A grades in music.

Students at Queen's College also achieved incredible results with 95% receiving A* - C grades and with 54% of exams receiving A*s and As.

Richard Venn, 16-year-old entrepreneur from Queen's achieved A*, six As and three Bs and is continuing with his pig-selling venture that he started when he was 8 years old:

He told This is Somerset: "I have been lucky to have benefitted from an excellent education and some great teachers which, coupled with on the ground work experience, has really given me a clear direction going forward."

"My parents are dairy and cereal farmers and life in the dairy industry is economically very challenging plus the weather has made harvesting crops difficult this year. As well as running my pig business I also spend the holidays and weekends driving a tractor and helping out on the farm so I am used to hard work."

Students from Castle School in Taunton also had reason to celebrate as they maintained the same level of success in GCSE exam results as they have done for the past three years.

Sam Donovan, 16, from Castle School got ten A*s and is going to study English, Maths, Physics and History:

He said: "I'm really happy, like, really happy about it. I'm not sure how else to describe it."

Molly, 16 from Trull also attends Castle school and achieved four A*s, 5 As and a B:

"I'm so excited I can't believe I got the results that I did. I have no idea what I want to do yet but I still have a lot of time to think about that at Richard Huish next September."

Headmistress of Castle School, Sarah Watson, was grinning from ear to ear when she spoke about her students achievements:

"I really care about securing an excellent future for all my students, I get just as excited as them on results day and they always deliver."

 "We take a huge personal investment in the children here. I had a group of students who were in danger of not getting their five A* - C grades so they came along to after school sessions with me every day, so I really cared about them doing well."