THERE were lots of smiles from pupils at Cockermouth School yesterday as they picked up their "excellent set" of GCSE results.

Head teacher Dr Rob Petrie said: "The entire Cockermouth School community is delighted with the exceptional progress students have made, resulting in outstanding 2019 GCSE results."

The dreadful weather put a bit of a dampener on Lou Rodger's plans to celebrate with fish and chips on the beach, but he was delighted with his results.

Friend William Thompson was all smiles. He will study A Level English Literature, History and Art at Cockermouth School.

George Holman, of Cockermouth, was looking forward to celebrating with friends after getting a great selection of grades.

Friends Isabel and Anna Moody, Molly Rankin and Emily Wilson all opened their results togethers - the ensuing smiles said it all.

Emily Wilson, of Embleton, was delighted to get five 8s and five 9s.

Duncan Potts, Head of Year 11, said: “I am very proud of how well our Year 11 students have worked over the duration of their courses and this has been rewarded by an excellent set of GCSE results.

"Within the overall success of the year group, there are a huge number of individual achievements that we should also recognise; my congratulations go to everyone involved.”

There were some excellent results by many students, including:

 Cal Cawthorn who achieved nine grade 9s;

 Archie Black, Maddie Jones, Grace Lee and Carys Thomas who all achieved six or more grade 9s;

 37 students achieved eight or more grades 7, 8 and 9 (or equivalent).

Dr Petrie said: "Special mention and congratulations should also go to Lucy Andrews, Gemma Fisher, Jonty Goodwin, Daniel Heaton and Callum Pears who, along with many other students, have worked incredibly hard since joining our school to make exceptional progress across all of their subjects.

"We would like to take this opportunity to recognise the hard work and dedication of our staff and students which, along with the continued support of parents and the community, has led to another set of outstanding results for Cockermouth School."

He said there had been more changes than ever to the grading system, boundaries and performance measures this year.

"We are making sure that collectively and individually we have accurate data to share with the media, the public and other stakeholders who are as keen as we are to celebrate the successes of our children and to congratulate all of our school staff," said Dr Petrie.

“As always there are a number of queries over re-marks and grade boundaries and so, once the official DfE September checking exercise has been completed, we will issue our headline data. For now, it is essential we focus on the real stars of today; the students.”