Tunbridge Wells students collect their GCSE results

Congratulations to thousands of local school pupils, who earlier today were able to finally find out their GCSE exam results after months of nail-biting waiting.

And, unsurprisingly perhaps,  the success rates here match those seen across the UK as a whole - which have risen yet again. A record 69.8% of students were awarded grades A* - C, and there was an increase in the number of A* or A grades handed out at GCSE level, up from 22.6% last year to 23.2% this summer.

Ministers have already announced plans to overhaul GCSE's in the future. From September 2012, pupils will sit all their exams at the end of the two-year courses, rather than throughout the course.

Pupils will also be marked on their spelling, punctuation and grammar in subjects that have a high "written English" element, such as history, geography, religious studies and English literature. Further reforms to GCSE's are expected to be announced after the review of the national curriculum is published.

Here in Tunbridge Wells, the pick of the bunch was Tunbridge Wells Girls Grammar School (TWGGS) who achieved a staggering 72.9% success rate at grade A* - C and where 98.6% of their candidates scored 5 GCSE's or more at grade A-C. Down the road at Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys, 97.2% of entrants scored 5 GCSE's at grade A-C, while Skinners Kent Academy brought up the rear with 46% of their pupils gaining 5 GCSE's at top grades.