AT KIMBOLTON, top performers included twins Alice and Robert Brodie, who achieved 17 A* grades between them (10 for Alice and seven for Robert). Katherine Mackay, from Brampton, achieved 10 A* grades, one A grade and was in the top five nationally for her

AT KIMBOLTON, top performers included twins Alice and Robert Brodie, who achieved 17 A* grades between them (10 for Alice and seven for Robert).

Katherine Mackay, from Brampton, achieved 10 A* grades, one A grade and was in the top five nationally for her statistics GCSE - out of 45,855 people who took the exam.

After record A-level results, Kimbolton recorded 96 per cent of pupils gaining five or more passes at A*-C.

Some pupils were abroad on a choir trip when they received their results. They were handed their envelopes by a teacher who had been given them when they had set off the day before.

Among them was Rebecca Bell who was on the school's choir tour of Belgium. Rebecca, a violinist and saxophone player, heard that her results included eight A* grades. Rebecca has also just been appointed leader of the Northamptonshire County Youth Orchestra and will lead the orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall in November.

Other high achievers included Lucy Moore, Shelley Stromdale and David Yallup, who each gained eight A* grades in their results.

Headteacher, Jonathan Belbin said: "One's eyes tend to dwell on the fantastic results at the top end, but hidden away lower down the list are so many mini-triumphs. We are not a particularly selective school and our 'value-added' results are more impressive than raw grades.