PUPILS in East Lancashire have once again been celebrating impressive GCSE results.

Hundreds of teens eagerly visited their high schools yesterday to find out if their hard work had paid off.

This was the first year all the main subjects were marked under the new grading system, which saw pupils gain grades from 9 to 1, with 9 being the equivalent of an A**.

St Christopher’s CE High School in Accrington had a successful year, with 30 pupils securing at least one grade 9 and more than 80 per cent of GCSE pupils gained a good pass in English and almost 80 per cent in maths.

For the second year in a row, St Wilfrid’s CE Academy, Blackburn, recorded its highest percentage of grade 8s and 9s.

Fifty students received at least one of the higher grade 9s and more than a third of all students claimed at least one 8 or nine.

Darwen Vale High School gained its best results in its history, its principal, Matthew Little said.

All curriculum subjects improved on the year before, with 75 per cent scoring grade 4 or above.

Maths improved by 20 per cent since the year before, with 70 per cent gaining a grade 4.

Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School in Blackburn saw 28 per cent of its pupils gain at least five 9 to 7 grades, an increase of five per cent from last year.

94 per cent of pupils passed English at grade 4 and above, with 87 per cent of pupils gaining at least five grades from 9 to 4.

Compared to last year - the number of pupils gaining strong passes in 2019 increased by two per cent in Blackburn with Darwen.

Cllr Maureen Bateson, executive member for children, young people and education on Blackburn with Darwen Council, said: “Firstly, I want to say a massive well done to every young person in Blackburn and Darwen who took their GCSE’s this year.

“We have had improvement in all our results, including 77 per cent in English, an improvement of 1 per cent, and 70 per cent in Maths, which stayed the same.

“The exams have been more challenging in recent years so it is wonderful to see these results and great to see even more improvement across the board.

“Students have worked incredibly hard and even more this year have achieved the pass grades in English and maths.

“What a fantastic achievement.

“I would also like to thank all our teachers, parents and governors for their hard work and support, they have helped enormously in this level of success.

“Our young people have done incredibly well.

“I want to offer my congratulations to all students and best wishes for your future plans.”

Lancashire County Cllr Phillippa Williamson, cabinet member for schools, said: “Our students deserve to be justifiably proud of themselves.

“These results are the reward for a great deal of hard work by pupils and their teachers to meet the demands of the challenging requirements of this year’s GCSE exams.”