Today marked the end of a nervous wait for many students as they opened their GCSE results.

Boys at King's Lynn Academy performed well this year, going against the national trend of boys not scooping the good grades in comparison to girls.

Craig Morrison, principal at King's Lynn Academy (KLA) and King Edward VII Academy (KES), said: 'We have kept the improvements from last year which is really good. What we have seen here at KES is a really strong improvement in members getting A and A* grades and lots of individual subjects doing really well and some really stunning individual performances.

'At KLA the results were broadly similar to last year, slightly up. What we are very pleased to see is better progress from students across the board.

'The most pleasing thing about the KLA results is the boys have done really quite well, which is not necessarily the case nationally.'

He added: 'Staff do a great job putting on a massive amount of extra opportunities but really we need the students to buy into that for it to work.'

Chloe Watson, 16 of South Wootton, was one of the students at KES to do well in her exams.

She said she achieved eight A*s and four As.

Miss Watson, who was awarded an A* in Latin, said she did well in maths and the sciences and did not expect to achieve an A* in English Literature.

The student will study biology, maths and chemistry A-levels at KES sixth form.

'The results are similar to my mock exam results but I am just really happy I managed to keep it up for my last lot of exams.'

Katy Landles, who also studied for her GCSEs at KES, achieved nine A*s, two As and a Distinction in an ECDL computer course.

She said: 'I am overwhelmed, I didn't expect that at all. It's a huge sense of relief. I am really proud of myself because I put in lots of work for it.'

Barney Rimmer, head of school at KLA, said: 'The progress over the year from the students has really improved, they have worked really hard. Staff have worked hard, I couldn't have asked for more from them.

'There is a gender gap nationally. Certainly work has been done with the boys, in particular in terms of their work ethic both inside and outside the classroom.'

Louis Hopgood, who studied for his GCSEs at KLA, was awarded two A*s, three As, one B and two C grades.

'I am really surprised I tried my hardest but I didn't think they would be this good,' said the 16-year-old.