PUPILS and staff at a Chorley school are celebrating an unprecedented success in GCSE results with almost 75 per cent gaining A to C grades.

St Michael's CE High was inundated with more than 200 16-year-olds and their parents last Thursday, anxious to open the envelopes holding the key to their future careers.

Seventy three per cent of them celebrated five plus A-C grades, a 15 per cent increase in three years.

It was a similar scene at Southlands High School where more than 60 per cent of pupils passed five or more subjects at grades A* to C.

Parklands, Holy Cross RC and Albany high schools all reported results well above the national average.

St Michael's pupil Ben Sutton, 16, was still stunned with the news that he had achieved seven A* grades and five As,.

He said: "I couldn't believe the results, I hope to study law later and this has given me a boost."

Amy Roberts and Madeleine Greenhalgh, both 16, were also celebrating a clean sweep of top grades, Amy with seven at A* and 4 at A and Madeleine with seven at A* and three at A.

Amy said: "It was a brilliant feeling to get the results, it was a surprise to me that they were all A grades."

The pair are hoping for further academic success when they continue their studies at Runshaw College this month.

The figures are higher than ever before and headteacher Liz Nicholls is hoping to build on this year's results.

She said: "I'm absolutely delighted with the results and want to continue the success next year and improve still further.

"Everyone has been rewarded for a lot of hard work and everybody did extremely well and got better than they had hoped for.

"I'm really thrilled for them all. It's been a great team effort."