Proud teenagers clutched freshly-opened envelopes and jumped for joy as they found out their GCSE fate.

Pupils across the borough decided the next step of their education after many received top marks.

At Oasis Academy Hadley, Ponders End, Anisha Akther achieved one A*, five As, one B and two Cs, including full marks in her ICT exam, which brought her grade up to an A*.

She said: “I’m so proud of myself. My mum started crying when I told her.”

Many students were shocked to get high maths results after an unexpectedly difficult exam.

Shakil Ali, who achieved eight As and 2Bs, said: “I was getting killed in that exam, but I got what I wanted – an A.”

Principal Lynne Dawes said she was very pleased with the results, which reflected all the hard work the students had put in.

But the route to success was not straightforward for some, including Alina Zakrjevsky, who was praised by all the staff for making the biggest improvement to get her final results: three A*s, four As and three Bs.

She said: “I just figured out a career path, and then I figured out what I needed to prioritise – science and maths.”

She hopes to become a dentist, and is thrilled with her maths result, which jumped from a C grade to an A* over three years, due to unwavering support from her teacher Mr Krah.

Ms Dawes is particularly proud of Lilly Ahmed, who pulled through to achieve eight GCSEs, after only passing two exams last year as she went through a difficult time in her life.

Lilly said: “I was revising some days until 4am, and my mum was with me all the way. My mum and sister really pushed me through.”

At Southgate School, headteacher Martin Lavelle was celebrating higher results than the previous year.

He said: “I think it is getting harder to get the top grades, so we are bucking the trend.”

The range between the highest and lowest performing students decreased by 20 per cent, which Mr Lavelle believes shows the school’s inclusivity.

He attributes the general success to strong pastoral care, which includes monitoring students and staging interventions when needed.

Sam Casserly benefited from an intervention with head of year Esen Hussein.

He said: “There were hurdles. I was hoping to scrape four Cs, and I got four Cs and three Bs.

“I put in a lot of hard work, but Miss Hussein worked hard to enable me to drop a subject so I could focus on just the core subjects.”

Friends Vicky Hall and Nicole Kyriacou were both celebrating all As and A*s.

Vicky was more relieved about Nicole’s results than her own, since she had promised to do something “extremely silly” if Nicole did not get an A* in maths.

Vicky said: “I was so sure that Nicole would get an A* that I came up with an outrageous bet.”

Few parents accompanied their children to school, but the teenagers were anxious to pass on the good news.