The principals of the Bermuda High School for Girls, Warwick Academy and Saltus Grammar yesterday were glowing with pride with news of success by their pupils in General Certificate of Secondary School Education (GCSE) results.

One BHS girl, Emily Ross, achieved top level examination marks across the board with nine A stars, a letter of commendation after getting into the top five marks worldwide in Latin.

BHS principal Ronald Napier, said: ?These are really the best results we have had. Our students worked very hard and they are getting very good teaching.?

Seven students received straight As in at least eight subjects and 49 percent of BHS test takers got grades of A star or A and 93 percent were in the range of A star to C.

Students at the Bermuda High School take the GCSE at age 16, a year earlier than is commonly taken in the United Kingdom.

Mr. Napier thought that around 85 percent of students who took the examinations had been at the Bermuda High School since primary one.

Mr. Napier said in the UK only 21.8 percent of female students and 16.4 percent of male students received A star to A grades.

Warwick Academy principal Robert Lennox was equally bubbly over his students? results: ?For the first time in my nine-year stay at the school, the top achievers were girls.

He added about all of the test takers: ?They were a good year group.?

Students at Warwick Academy take a combination of GCSE and International General Certificate of Secondary School Education (IGCSE) exams. This year, 61 Warwick Academy students took the exams and the overall pass rate was 99.2 per cent.

In the GCSE subjects 85 per cent of Warwick Academy exams were in the A* to C range, and in the IGCSE exams it was 65 percent.

Exceptional students included girls Erin Vickers and Carika Weldon and boys Sean Baker and Andy Minton.

Mr. Lennox said this was the best year so far in terms of GCSE grades at Warwick Academy, he said.

Nigel Kermode, headmaster at Saltus Grammar School, was also very pleased with students? GCSE results. ?This year we had a double cohort ? two year groups that entered for GCSE, bringing the total to 104 students,? said Mr. Kermode.

Out of 932 examinations taken by Saltus Grammar School students, 669 exam grades, or 72 percent, were A star to C passes.