JOY and relief and smiles all round - that was Suffolk's students today as they celebrated outstanding GCSE results.

JOY and relief and smiles all round - that was Suffolk's students today as they celebrated outstanding GCSE results.

High schools were thrilled with the youngsters achievements with most reporting record ever exam grades.

And at Farlingaye High School in Woodbridge, a teenager who has battled a debilitating illness during her GCSE results today celebrated outstanding results - including a top-ten place in the country for one subject.

Josie Hughes achieved nine A*s and one A despite suffering from ME, a condition which causes severe mental and physical fatigue.

Josie , who could only attend the Woodbridge school part-time and completed most of her work at home, was also in the top ten of 8,000 pupils for information communications technology.

Her twin brother, Tristan, was also celebrating five A* in his exams.

Headteacher Sue Hargadon said: “Josie has had really terrible ME and has had to receive a lot of home tuition. She has needed to support herself with online work.

“Whilst we have offered support it is very much to her credit that she worked independently. It is a real tribute to how hard they have both worked and the support they had from their parents.”

At Northgate High School GCSE results continued to improve with 72per cent of pupils gaining five A* to C grades - a rise of four per cent on last year's results with 26 per cent of all grades at A* or A.

The school was awarded joint science and language college status this year and results in these two areas were very strong.

Headteacher Neil Watts was pleased with the excellent results across all subjects and particularly highlighted the combined effort of pupils, teachers and parents in achieving these results.

“These are very pleasing results and underline how the school is constantly striving to improve the experience of education for its pupils,” he said.

“We are proud of the progress made in specialist subjects and with targeted groups. These results indicate excellence across the curriculum.”

At Ipswich School 20 students achieved A* or A grades in all the subjects which they sat, and two of them, Samantha Robin and Zak Snowling, have achieved straight A* grades in all subjects.

A total of 29 per cent of all passes were at A* level.

Senior deputy head Darren Ayling said: “I am delighted with these results. They are a reflection of the students' ability and commitment.”

Students who achieved A*s and As in all subjects are Anrandeep Aujla, Sumitha Bose, Kirsti Brisk, Alice Bullough, Anna Campbell, Henry Davidson, Alice Fallais-Jebb, Hannah Glasse, James Gwinnutt, Rebecca Hart, Tilly Hill, Hannah Jeffery, Yasir Khan, Annie Mak, Elizabeth McColl, Laurence Pinnell, Samantha Robin, Ellen Rogers, Zak Snowling and Oliver Ware.

At Westbourne Sports College, headteacher Chris Edwards said: “Although the overall percentages are slightly down on last year, this is because of the exceptionally large number of students with problems who moved to us from other schools in the last 3 years.

“We took in 12 students who were failing at other schools which is around 5 per cent of the year group. We did our best for them but they had fallen too far behind.”

In all 47% achieved 5+ A*-C with around 30pc achieving those passes including English and Maths.

Mr Edwards added: “The other side of the coin though is the outstanding achievement of those students who have been with us for the full 5 years.”

The College was particularly pleased with how well their most able students did with 28 students achieving ten or more A*-C passes.

Outstanding results were achieved by students Owen Phillips, who achieved 8 GCSE A and A*s, Yasmin Hunt who achieved 7 A and A*s and Oliver Coe and Asif Mohammed who both achieved 6 top grades.

Pupils at Stoke High School and Thurleston High School were also celebrating today after years of hard work paid of with some better than expected results.

At Stoke head teacher Alan Whittaker said just under half of the students achieved five A to Cs.

Alex Philips, 16, said he was delighted after getting an A in PE and C's in the rest of his subjects. “I was expecting probably to fail in art and stuff like that but did really well, I'm going to college to do a BTec National in sport. “Hopefully I can go on to university and do teacher training or maybe a degree in sport.”

Rebecca Clark scored two A*, five A's and three B's: “I'm really pleased, my results have got me into the sixth form at Northgate.”

Headteacher Alan Whittaker said: “We are about where we were last year, we are really pleased, they have been a very good year group.”

At Thurleston Emma Vincent, 16 scored an A, five B's and four C's. She said: “I'm so happy with it. I'm going to go to college to do health sciences. I'm off to celebrate now.”

Rakhwe Acharya, 16, said she did much better than she thought she would getting five C's, two D's and an E. “I'm going to Suffolk College to do health and social care.

Oliver Brown, an academy player with Ipswich Town scored two B's, six C's and one D. He said: “I thought I was going to get mainly D's, but I'm really happy with what I've got. I want to play football in the future but I'm going to go to Suffolk College to do a National Diploma in PE.”

Owen Aldred, also did better than expected with two B's, five C's, two D's as well as an E and an F.

Ria Wilding was chuffed with her results which included a B. “I have got the B so I can just brag about that, I never thought I would get a B in my life. I start at Suffolk College next week and I'm really looking forward to it.”

Head teacher Mike Everett said: “We are really pleased. Over recent years our results have risen and this year's results of around 50 per cent getting five A's to C's means that continues. They have been a terrific, lovely year group. As well as academic success they have got real character as well. I'm sure they will go off and have great success in the future.”