A record number of girls at a state school in Camden have celebrated being awarded all A*s or As in their GCSEs.

Camden School for Girls, a comprehensive in Camden Town, saw 19 of its pupils achieved a clean sweep of the top grades this morning.

Headteacher Elizabeth Kitcatt said: “It was a very hard working year, with very ambitious and committed pupils. We are really pleased.”

Rachael Allen, head girl at the school, celebrated an astonishing 10 A*s and one A when collecting her results this morning.

Emerging from the school hall with tears of joy running down her cheeks, the 16-year-old said: “I am so happy, I wasn’t expecting this result at all, especially in my French.

“We all did a lot of hard work. I’m going on to do history, geography, English and maths at A-level, hopefully to go on and do something like geography at university. I’m overjoyed.”

Nationally, the proportion of GCSEs awarded at least a C grade rose again this year, but top grades have fallen for the fourth year in a row.

In total, almost seven in 10 (69%) entries were awarded A*-C, up 0.2 percentage points on 2014.

But there was a 0.1 percentage point drop in A* grades - the fourth year running that there has been a fall - with 6.6% of entries given the highest mark this year.

The rest of Camden School fo Girls GCSE grades are:

Percentage of A* - A grades 2015: 43%

Percentage of 5 A* - C grades including maths and English 2015: 78%

Percentage of pupils achieving E-Bacc 2015: 53%

Percentage of A* - A grades 2014 (verified): 43%

Percentage of 5 A* - C grades including maths and English 2014 (verified): 76%

Percentage of pupils achieving E-Bacc 2014 (verified): 50%