IT HAS been a bumper year of results for Queen Katherine School, with half of the grades A or higher at the school. 

This year was the first time that school students took external exams. For this year's cohort, they had not taken exams since their SATs. 

The Mail: Millie Stephenson, Skye Smith, Lauren Martindale, Freddie Nelson-YeatesMillie Stephenson, Skye Smith, Lauren Martindale, Freddie Nelson-Yeates

COVID still disrupted the first half of their sixth-form experience. Many went into today worried that they had not done enough, because of the negative press leading up to results day.

However, the students have come out on top, with some students performing better than expected. Lucy Perris, who is going to study Architecture at Northumbria University said: Art and Design A*, Design and Technology A, AS Geography B, and an A in her Extended Project (EPQ) said: "My predicted grades were Cs so this is a lot better than I expected, I put in a lot of work this year."

The Mail: Frances D'Arcy, Rachel Galpin, Anna Davies, Holly JonesFrances D'Arcy, Rachel Galpin, Anna Davies, Holly Jones

Millie Stephenson said she was feeling 'surprisingly good'  and 'shocked' when she received her results. She got a Distinction *, a Distinction and 2A*s.

She is going to celebrate her very good results with a gap year.

"I'm just going to live my life a bit before I go to uni because after that I want to go straight into a job with all my references and placements and things, but I'm really looking forward to moving on," she said.

The Mail: Lucy Parris is going to Northumbria UniversityLucy Parris is going to Northumbria University

Kai Flaherty is well on his way toward achieving his dream of working at BAE in Barrow. He got Distinction* in Computing, A in Further Maths, A* in Maths and B in Physics. "I'm very happy, I did better than expected," he said. 

The Mail: Kai Flaherty wants to start an apprenticeship at BAE in BarrowKai Flaherty wants to start an apprenticeship at BAE in Barrow

Skye Hannah Smith, who got an A* in her EPQ, 2As and a C, said she was feeling 'overwhelmed'.

"I didn't expect this to be as good as it is especially with the news coverage of everyone saying that this is going to be the worst year," she said.

Josh Meyfroidt said he was 'over the moon'.

"Through everything that has happened to succeed is really nice," he said.

He got an A* in Geography, an A in Economics and a B in Chemistry. He is going to study Geography at Newcastle University.