Female students help UCS make the grade

UNIVERSITY College School celebrated its first year of girl leavers by gaining a 28% A* rate in its A-level results. The Hampstead school again saw more than 90% of exams graded A* to B and headteacher Kenneth Durham said the number of A*s massively excee

UNIVERSITY College School celebrated its first year of girl leavers by gaining a 28% A* rate in its A-level results.

The Hampstead school again saw more than 90% of exams graded A* to B and headteacher Kenneth Durham said the number of A*s massively exceeded his expectations.

"We were expecting to get below 20% so we were very pleased and positively surprised by the proportion of A*s that we achieved," he said.

"The existence of the A* has motivated students to try even harder.

"The girls have fitted in really well. It has been a really good two years with them and they've added a great deal to the school.

"In terms of their results they were excellent. They performed to exactly the same level as the boys."

Lucy Auton, one of 35 girls to complete their A-levels at the school, is going to Oxford after getting a clean sweep of A*s in maths, further maths and physics.

"I'm really happy. I don't see how I could have done any better," she said.

"I was the only girl in my maths class and one of two in my physics class so I had to compete with the boys. It's been interesting with so few girls here but great fun."

Eylon Levy achieved the school's best set of results with five A*s in English literature, history, Spanish, Latin and French, and is going on to study PPE at Oxford.

"I worked as hard as I could so I was hopeful that I had done as well as I possibly could but you should never be presumptuous," he said.

"I am absolutely delighted though and can't wait to go to uni now.