SCC celebrated its best GCSE results as pupils opened their envelopes and enjoyed party food and music in a hall decorated with balloons.

An impressive 74 per cent of pupils achieved five or more A to Cs, up 15 per cent from last year, and 28 per cent gained an A* or A.

Among those celebrating were pupils from the school's department for deaf pupils.

Cathy Lehegarat, 16, achieved 10 A to Cs and is off to college to study health and social care. She said: "I am happy and proud."

Fellow pupil Daniel Hatch said he was "very happy" with nine A to Cs. Daniel will stay on at SCC and study ICT.

It wasn't only pupils from the department celebrating exam success. Teachers Lesley Shillingford and Jo Willcock (both corr) went to maths lessons with the youngsters and both passed a GCSE in the subject.

A high achiever was Cally Wallwork, who got 16 A to Cs, the best being A* for drama.

Cally, 16, who will go on to study drama and maths at A level, said: "I am beyond ecstatic, ridiculously happy. I'm going out for a meal with my family tonight to celebrate."

Head teacher Alan Barham was delighted and hoped this year's results would provide the platform for achieving even better results in 2011, including 85 per cent at grades A to C.

Other outstanding results included Ross Ansley (eight As and four Bs) and Chelsey Apps (four A*s, four As and five Bs).

WESTLANDS School was celebrating its best GCSE results, with 78 per cent of pupils achieving five or more A* to C grades.

In addition, 51 per cent achieved at least five A* to C grades including, English and maths.

Top achiever at Westlands was 16-year-old Rebecca Button who gained A*s in animal care and ICT as well as seven As and a B.

Rebecca, who will do A levels in ICT and art at Westlands said: "I can't get my head around getting the best results in the school, I'm going to stand here in shock for the rest of my life! I was hoping to get these results but I didn't ever think I would get the highest grades. I will probably party at home to celebrate."

Pals Jack Anderson and Jordan Tilley were celebrating impressive results with Jack's best score an A in drama and Jordan achieving Bs for English and maths.

Jack, who will study history, drama, business and media in the sixth form, had no time to celebrate his success as he was off to train with his football team, the Iwade Herons.

Jordan has his life mapped out and after completing courses in English literature, media and public service at Westlands, he intends to study public services at university.

He said: "The public services course will involve training around the school and on trips, fitness training and written exercises. After university I would like to go into something like the police force."

Head teacher Jon Whitcombe was delighted with the exam results and praised teachers, support staff, pupils and parents for their work.

He said: "Pupils' performances in English, maths and science are simply beyond any realistic set of expectations and demonstrate the determination of this school community to always be looking for and finding ways to improve pupils' life chances."

YEAR 11s at Borden celebrated the school's best results to date in terms of quality of grades, with 40 per cent at A or A*.

Matthew Baker, Daniel Butcher, Andrew Crombie, Adam Cross, Richard Lane, Lucas Matson, Alastair Rushworth and Alastair Thomas achieved 11 A* or A grades.

Bunyamin Bardak, Keian Barton, Japhet Goodburn, Paul Gostling, Michael Gozo, Jack Johnson, Conor Maloney, Damon Payn and Alex Pfeiffer-Brown landed 10 A* or As. In total, 28 students achieved eight or more A* or As.

Head Harold Vafeas added: "Many other boys met their targets and made very good progress through a positive attitude and a great deal of hard work. Overall these results are a great credit to students and their teachers, and to parents for their support."

PUPILS and staff at Fulston Manor were celebrating yet another record-breaking set of results.

More exam takers than ever before, 57 per cent, achieved at least five GCSEs, including English and mathematics, at grade C or above. The previous year's figure was 53 per cent, the first time the school had broken 50 per cent, making it the top performing non-denominational school in Kent.

Among the achievers this time were Chloe Chalmers (two A*s, eight As and two Bs), Ryan Keen (one A*, nine As, one B and a C) and Jasmine Akhurst (three A*s, one A, five Bs and a C).

Head Alan Brookes said: "All of the overall figures are very good – 97% achieved 5 or more GCSEs grades A-G and 72% 5 or more at C or above – but it is the figure including English and Maths that is the benchmark against which schools are measured and to have gained 57% is fantastic.

THE class of 2010 at Highsted saw the overall percentage of pupils gaining five or more A* to C grades increased to 98.6 per cent.

Twenty eight pupils achieved A* and A grades in 10 or more subjects, while 75 gained five or more A* and As.

Thirty years achieved top grades in French – a year early - while 31 year 10s received top grades in statistics, a subject they had studied for just eight months.

Deputy head Jonathan Hopkins said: "The class of 2010 have done extremely well. We are tremendously proud of our girls and pleased with the results they achieved.

"It is important that we continue to educate the girls of Sittingbourne and Sheppey in such a way that they have every opportunity to make a difference to their local community and beyond in the future."

Isle of Sheppey Academy

SHEPPEY Academy pupils proved themselves pass masters with a stunning set of GCSE results.

The academy's GCSE success saw 65 per cent of pupils gaining a minimum of five passes and 30 per cent achieving five A* to C grades.

Faye Saunders scored 15 A* to C grades, while Kieron Hughes managed 13.

Another high achiever was Elliot Thurman-Newell, who gained 10 As.

Elliot, 16, of New Road, Minster, who plans to study science and maths at Highsted, said: "I'm delighted with the results and I worked really hard to get them, but I'm sure there was a bit of luck involved as well."

Anna Berrisford was also thrilled with her results which included three As among her nine GCSEs. "It means I can stay on at the sixth form and study English literature and social history," she said.

It was the academy's first set of exam results and a total of 380 pupils sat GCSEs, and grades in core subjects showed an improvement on last year's Minster College results.

In English, there was a 13 per cent improvement in grade C and above passes, while higher grade maths results are up 16 per cent.

Alan Klee, the academy's executive head teacher, said: "These results mark the beginning of the academy's journey and the platform from which it can build future successes for Sheppey."