The head teacher of Mayfield School in Pedley Road, Goodmayes, was “delighted” with its best-ever GCSE results today.

Five A*s to Cs were achieved by 68 per cent of pupils with 65 per cent gaining five A*s to Cs including English and Maths.

The latter was an improvement from 52 per cent last year and headteacher Andy Rehling was quick to praise students and staff today.

He said: “We’re very very happy, we’re delighted by that.

“It’s down to the incredible hard work of the staff and students and the commitment that they showed.”

A group of six pupils – Nusheen Akhtar, Atiqur Rahman, Monica Nahou, Hardeep Sambi, Kiran Sanqha and Ruth Burr - achieved 10 A*s or As.

And Abda Kazemi, Marqam Rafiq, Rakisha Mansoor, Asha Ali and Reshma Ravikumar got eight A*s to As.

Mr Rehling said the large majority of students will now stay at the school for their sixth-form studies.

Will the school improve its GCSE results again next year?

He said: “We’re always optimistic.

“We’ve improved year on year for about the last 10 years.

“This year everything came together and we’d like to maintain that.”