THERE were record numbers of higher grade passes flying around in Lymington as Priestlands School equalled its best-ever set of exam results.

Five or more A* to C grades were achieved by 68 per cent of pupils, and this included maths and English for 53 per cent of pupils.

One student - Pippa Moss - even gained national recognition for her fantastic list of 12 A*s. She received a congratulatory letter from the exam board for achieving one of the top five results in the country for English literature.

Pippa, who is taking maths, further maths, physics, French and music at Brockenhurst from September, said: "I'm so pleased - I've done much better than I expected. I'm really surprised about the English literature result - I'm not even taking English next year!"

Twins Mark and Paul Minors, 16, from Pennington, also had a string of top grades between them. Mark got two A*s, six As, two Bs and one C and Paul got three A*s, four As, two Bs and a C.

Head teacher Chris Willsher said: "These are marvellous results. Priestlands continues to be a successful school, rooted in its community and serving the community well."

n GCSE celebrations continued across the New Forest and the Waterside.

Arnewood School, in New Milton, achieved its best-ever exam results with 70 per cent of pupils gaining five or more A* to C grades.

Head teacher Chris Hummerstone said: "Seventy per cent is a fantastic benchmark to reach with a year group of 250 pupils in a comprehensive school."

At Noadswood School in Dibden Purlieu, 61 per cent of the 220 students got five or more A* to C grades.

Head teacher Alex Bernard said: "We are slightly down but we expected to be. We are particularly pleased with our top performers - a number of pupils got 12 or 13 A*s and As."

Noadswood's top performer was Gemma Halliday who gained nine A*s and five As.

At Applemore College, nearly 30 students achieved more than ten grades A* to C. Results were slightly down on last year, but head teacher Matthew Longden said: "Huge changes are still under way and progress will be maintained."

At Ringwood School, 73 per cent of pupils gained five or more A* to C grades. Rebecca Shering, 16, gained one of the top five marks in the country for Spanish.

A total of 63.2 per cent of the 140 pupils at The Burgate School, in Fordingbride, gained five or more higher grade passes.