After months of anticipation, children across West Norfolk finally opened the envolopes to their future.

For Springwood High School student Brett Cossey it came as a massive shock to find out he had three A* results, five A's and a distinction in ICT.

He said: 'I am absolutley estatic, I'm speechless.

'These results have been haunting me for some time now with all the pressure.

'I was truly expecting to get B's and C's, so to get lobbed with these it's so hard to verbalise how stunned I am.'

There was similar joy for Nathan Winner, 16, whose results included five A* grades, five A's, one B and a distinction x2 in ICT.

He said: 'I feel on top of the world I was never expecting that at all.

'It's been a long wait for these results and a lot of work.

'I had to sacrifice a lot of football to get my head down and revise for these results. I just can't find the words to describe how happy I am.'

Despite changes in the examination system, Springwood High School for the third year running had over two thirds of students gain five A* to C grades including Mathematics and English.

Executive Headteacher Andy Johnson said: 'It's difficult to make comparisons as the examination system is very different and it would be like comparing chalk and cheese.

'It has been a great effort by everyone to re-adjust, it's not our highest results ever but we still got two third of students over the gold standard and we can push on now for next year.'

At Wisbech Grammar school, 99pc of pupils gained five or more passes, with 27 students obtaining five passes at over A grade level.

Laura Harriman added nine A* passes to an A* she gained in maths a year ago.

She said: 'I did way better than I thought. I have been so nervous on the way into school and it is such a relief to end it.'

41pc of students at King's Lynn Academy got five A* to C grades including English and Maths, down from last year's 44pc.

Prinicpial Craig Morrison said: 'It is great to see so many cases of young people who have shown great perseverance within the key subjects of English and Maths in particular.

As ever, we will investigate the areas in which we can improve as we aim to return to best-ever results next summer.'